Abstract
In this issue of EMBO Molecular Medicine, Bhuvanagiri et al report on a chemical means to convert molecular junk into gold. They identify a chemical inhibitor of a quality control pathway that is best known for its ability to clear cells of rubbish, but that in certain cases can be detrimental because it eliminates “useful” garbage. The chemical inhibitor identified by Bhuvanagiri et al perturbs Nonsense-Mediated RNA Decay (NMD), a RNA surveillance pathway that targets mRNAs harboring premature termination codons (PTCs) for degradation (Kervestin & Jacobson, 2012).
Highlights
In this issue of EMBO Molecular Medicine, Bhuvanagiri et al report on a chemical means to convert molecular junk into gold
When a stop codon is in a premature context, this assembles components of the Nonsense-Mediated RNA Decay (NMD) machinery in a manner that recruits RNA degradation enzymes to rapidly degrade the premature termination codons (PTCs)-bearing mRNA
NMD is a major pathway for reducing the level of aberrant mRNAs
Summary
In this issue of EMBO Molecular Medicine, Bhuvanagiri et al report on a chemical means to convert molecular junk into gold. Bhuvanagiri et al (2014) have identified a means to allow mutant genes containing aberrant stop codons to become useful. A common means to generate inframe PTCs is nonsense and frameshift mutations, the class of mutations responsible for causing one-third of human genetic disease cases (Holbrook et al, 2004).
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