Abstract
Post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression plays a crucial role in many processes. In cells, it is mediated by diverse RNA-binding proteins. These proteins can influence mRNA stability, translation, and localization. The PUF protein family (Pumilio and FBF) is composed of RNA-binding proteins highly conserved among most eukaryotic organisms. Previous investigations indicated that they could be involved in many processes by binding corresponding motifs in the 3′UTR or by interacting with other proteins. To date, most of the investigations on PUF proteins have been focused on Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila melanogaster, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, while only a few have been conducted on Arabidopsis thaliana. The present article provides an overview of the PUF protein family. It addresses their RNA-binding motifs, biological functions, and post-transcriptional control mechanisms in Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila melanogaster, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and Arabidopsis thaliana. These items of knowledge open onto new investigations into the relevance of PUF proteins in specific plant developmental processes.
Highlights
In most eukaryotic organisms, gene expression is commonly regulated at the transcriptional and posttranscriptional levels; this is considered as a powerful strategy for these organisms to flexibly adapt their growth and development to environmental inputs
The resolution of protein structures and the functional characterization of RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) have shown that these proteins possess several conserved motifs and domains such as RNA-recognition motifs (RRMs), zinc fingers, K homology (KH) domains, DEAD/DEAH boxes (highly conserved motif (Asp-Glu-Ala-Asp) in RNA helicases), Pumilio/FBF (Caenorhabditis elegans Pumilio-fem-3 binding factor, PUF) domains, and pentatricopeptide-repeat (PPR) domains [6]
The experimental results from Tam et al indicated that AtPum2, an Arabidopsis PUF protein, binds the RNA of Drosophila Nanos Response Element I (NRE1) 5 -UGUAUAUA-3 located in its 3 UTR [7]
Summary
Gene expression is commonly regulated at the transcriptional and posttranscriptional levels; this is considered as a powerful strategy for these organisms to flexibly adapt their growth and development to environmental inputs. The Pumilio RNA-binding protein family—the PUF family—is a large family of RBPs found in all eukaryotes; the number of PUF gene copies in each model organism is highly variable. The PUF family is mainly involved in post-transcriptional control by binding to specific regulatory cis-elements of their mRNA targets. Through this interaction they govern RNA decay and translational repression [7]. PUF protein influences the expression level of their target gene dramatically through the post-transcriptional level. Showed that the ASH1 in puf mutant had a higher expression level than in the wild type [12]. Suh et al indicated that FBF, a PUF protein in Caenorhabditis elegans, can represses gld-1 expression through interact with gld-1 mRNA. Given that our knowledge of the functional roles of RBPs in plants is lagging far behind our understanding of their roles in other organisms, this article ends by briefly underlying the interest of investigating the role of the PUF family in certain key mechanisms of plant functioning
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