Abstract
Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the functional significance of leader and trailer sequences in eukaryotic messenger ribonucleic acids (mRNAs). A functionally active eukaryotic mRNA is the final product of a complex series of steps that includes the transcription of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) into an mRNA precursor, intranuclear processing of these precursors, and transport of the mRNAs into the cytoplasm and their association with ribosomes to initiate the process of translation into amino acid sequences. The mRNA molecule can be divided into three domains that are from 5′ to 3′: the leader, coding, and trailer sequences. The leader and trailer regions contain sequences copied from the genomic DNA (the 5′ and 3′ noncoding region) and features added posttranscriptionally (the “cap” at the 5´ terminus and the poly[A] tail at the 3′ terminus). The chapter discusses the main aspects of the structure and biosynthesis of the leader and trailer sequence and analyzes the experiments that shed some light on the possible functions of these regions.
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