C-Myc 5′ untranslated region contains an internal ribosome entry segment (original) (raw)

Oncogene volume 16, pages 423–428 (1998)Cite this article

Abstract

Translation in eukaryotic cells is generally initiated by ribosome scanning from the 5′ end of the capped mRNA. However, initiation of translation may also occur by a mechanism which is independent of the cap structure and in this case ribosomes are directed to the start codon by an internal ribosome entry segment (IRES). Picornaviruses represent the paradigm for this mechanism, but only a few examples exist which show that this mechanism is used by eukaryotic cells. In this report we show data which demonstrate that the 5′ UTR of the proto-oncogene c-myc contains an IRES. When a dicistronic reporter vector, with c-myc 5′ UTR inserted between the two cistrons, was transfected into both HepG2 and HeLa cells, the translation of the downstream cistron was increased by 50-fold, demonstrating that translational regulation of c-myc is mediated through cap-independent mechanisms. This is the first example of a proto-oncogene regulated in this manner and suggests that aberrant translational regulation of c-myc is likely to play a role in tumorigenesis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK
    Mark Stoneley, Fiona EM Paulin, John PC Le Quesne, Stephen A Chappell & Anne E Willis

Authors

  1. Mark Stoneley
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  2. Fiona EM Paulin
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  3. John PC Le Quesne
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  4. Stephen A Chappell
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  5. Anne E Willis
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Stoneley, M., Paulin, F., Quesne, J. et al. C-Myc 5′ untranslated region contains an internal ribosome entry segment.Oncogene 16, 423–428 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.onc.1201763

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