Abstract 4451: Dynamic translational regulation of cancer-associated genes through mRNA structure

Abstract

Abstract Our goal is to understand how disrupting translational regulation leads to cancer by analyzing the extent to which RNA structure contributes to the translational efficiency of mRNAs in different phases of the cell cycle. We hypothesize that RNA structure is a dynamic projection of the cellular environment and actively contributes to gene regulation by combining sequence-based and environment-induced structures to influence post-transcriptional regulation. We focus on cell cycle regulation as a common, dynamic cellular process that is highly relevant to cancer development and progression. Additionally, during the cell cycle the translational efficiency of many different mRNAs have been shown to change from one phase to the next. We have determined the secondary structures of eight translationally regulated 5'UTRs using SHAPE-MaP (Selective 2' Hydroxyl Acylation by Primer Extension and Mutational Profiling). This chemical structure probing technique is unique in that it reads through chemical modifications during reverse transcription and can be coupled to next generation sequencing and incorporated into RNA structural modeling. Furthermore, we are able to probe these structures in vivo during different stages of the cell cycle. Our data show important conformational rearrangements in 5'UTRs between G1-phase cells and S-phase cells. These results suggest that mRNA structure is a dynamic attribute that plays a role in translational regulation. Many genes involved in cell cycle regulation are implicated in cancer development and progression. Our results confirm that RNA structure of 5' UTRs is an important component of translation regulation and ultimately controls protein expression levels. Citation Format: Lela Lynn Lackey, Aaztli Coria, Alain Laederach. Dynamic translational regulation of cancer-associated genes through mRNA structure [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 4451.