The Relationship between mRNA Structure and Its Stability

Gao-Fei Xiong^1.2, Xiang-Yang Xiong², Ji-Xiang Zhang¹*
(¹Department of Digestion, the Key Laboratory of Molecular Medicine, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang 330006, China; ²Department of Physiology, Department of Biochemistry, Basical Medical College,Nanchang University, Nanchang 330006, China)

Abstract mRNA structure is closely correlated with mRNA stability which is involved in the regulation of gene expression. To better understand the molecular mechanisms of gene expression, the relationship between mRNA structure, including 5' cap structure, 3' poly(A) tail, 5' untranslated region et al., and mRNA stability was reviewed in this work.

Key words mRNA structure; mRNA stability; gene expression

Received: November 3, 2005 Accepted: April 13, 2006
This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.30360037, No.30160032)
*Corresponding author. Tel: 86-791-6292706, E-mail: jixiangz@tom.com