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Mapping the contact points between eukaryotic translation initiation factor eIF3 and the 40S ribosomal subunit.
Kouba, Tomáš ; Valášek, Leoš (advisor) ; Pospíšek, Martin (referee) ; Staněk, David (referee)
Translation initiation in eukaryotes is a multistep process requiring the orchestrated interaction of several eukaryotic initiation factors (eIFs) together with the small ribosomal subunit to locate the mRNA's translational start and to properly decode the genetic message that it carries. The largest of these factors, eIF3, forms the scaffold for other initiation factors to promote their spatially coordinated placement on the ribosomal surface. It is our long-standing pursuit to map the 40S-binding site of the yeast multisubunit eIF3 and here we present three new mutual interactions between these two macromolecules (i) The C-terminal region of the eIF3c/NIP1 subunit is comprised of the conserved bipartite PCI domain and we show that a short C-terminal truncation and two clustered mutations directly disturbing the PCI domain produce lethal or slow growth phenotypes and significantly reduce amounts of 40S-bound eIF3 in vivo. The extreme C-terminus directly interacts with small subunit ribosomal protein RACK1/ASC1, which is a part of the 40S head, and, consistently, deletion of ASC1 impairs eIF3 association with ribosomes. The PCI domain per se shows strong but unspecific binding to RNA, for the first time implicating this protein fold in protein-RNA interactions. We conclude that the c/NIP1...
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Influence of rRNA modifications on translation initiation in eukaryots
Kročová, Eliška ; Pospíšek, Martin (advisor) ; Kouba, Tomáš (referee)
Modifications of ribosomal RNA are present in every livivng organism. The function of rRNA modifications could be studied only when the process of modifications was described. Currently, scientists study not only individual modifications but also the importance of global level of modifications for maturation and function of ribosome. This thesis deals with the influence of 2'-O-methylation of citidine 1639 and adenosine 100 in 18S rRNA and uridine 2729 in 25S rRNA on initiation in yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae with special attention of translation controlled by internal ribosome entry site (IRES). Strains with deletion in genes snR51, snR70 and duoble deletion in both genes were successfully created during my master study. Pilot experiments showed the importance of products of both genes in translation initiation.
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Preparation of yeast system for investigation of the human translation initiation
Holásková, Lucie ; Pospíšek, Martin (advisor) ; Cuchalová, Lucie (referee)
Protein synthesis is principally regulated at the initiation stage in which eIF4F complex plays an important role. The eIF4F complex contains three subunits - eIF4A, eIF4E and eIF4G. The eIF4E is cap binding protein, the eIF4A is RNA dependent helicase which unwinds secondary structures at mRNA and scaffolding eIF4G protein. The interaction with other translation initiation factors is important for protein synthesis. The goal of my thesis was to create a new Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast strain with the human eIF4F factor. Firstly I replaced yeast eIF4E protein with human eIF4E protein. I used a cre/loxP recombination to prepare yeast strains with deleted genes eIF4GI (huΔ4G1) and eIF4GII (huΔ4G2). Characterization of the new yeast strains showed that the human eIF4E protein replaced yeast ortholog factor better than the eIF4E protein from yeast Candida albicans. First experiments showed putative role of the eIF4GII protein during the cell growth under the temperature and osmotic stress. Key words: translation initiation, eIF4E, eIF4G, Saccharomyces cerevisiae
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The role of the N-terminal domain of the a/TIF32 subunit of eIF3 in mRNA recruitment to the 43S pre-initiation complexes.
Vlčková, Vladislava ; Valášek, Leoš (advisor) ; Mašek, Tomáš (referee)
Translation initiation is a complex process which results in the assembly of the elongation competent 80S ribosome from the 40S and 60S ribosomal subunits, the initiator tRNA and mRNA, and is orchestrated by numerous eukaryotic initiation factors (eIFs). Although it represents one of the most regulated processes of gene expression, the exact mechanism of one of the key steps of translation initiation - mRNA recruitment to the 43S pre-initiation complex (PIC) - is still only poorly understood. Recent studies indicated that besides eIF4F and poly(A)-binding protein, also eIF3 might play an important, if not crucial, role in this step. In our laboratory, we recently identified a 10 Ala substitution (Box37) in the a/TIF32 subunit of Saccharomyces cerevisiae eIF3, which interfered with translation initiation rates. Detailed analysis showed that this mutation significantly reduces the amounts of model mRNA in the gradient fractions containing 48S PICs as the only detectable effect in vivo. Moreover, a recently solved crystal structure of the N-terminal part of a/TIF32 pointed to two Box37 residues, Arg363 and Lys364, both proposed to contribute to one of the positive, potentially RNA-binding areas on the a/TIF32 surface. The fact that also their substitutions with alanines severely impaired the mRNA recruitment...
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Dissection of eIF3 functional domains promoting the 48S pre-initiation complex assembly
Beznosková, Petra ; Valášek, Leoš (advisor) ; Novotný, Marian (referee)
In eukaryotes, translation initiation is guided by up to twelve protein initiation factors (eIFs) and begins with the formation of the 43S pre-initiation complex (PIC) composed of the small ribosomal subunit (40S), eIF2.GTP/Met-tRNAi Met ternary complex, and eIFs 1, 1A, 3 and 5. The 43S PIC subsequently interacts with the 5'end of an mRNA (an mRNA recruitment step) and thus formed 48S PIC travels in 5' to 3' direction along the mRNA leader sequence to locate the AUG start codon (this presumably linear movement is generally known as scanning). Start site selection results in the dissociation of the initiation factors and joining of the large (60S) ribosomal subunit to form the 80S initiation complex poised for elongation. Eukaryotic initiation factor 3 (eIF3) plays a critical role in most of these events; however, the molecular details of most of its contributions are still unknown to us. Previous in vivo studies generated numerous mutations in all eIF3 subunits with specific defects either in the PICs assembly or in the following steps such as scanning, AUG recognition, etc. To understand the exact role of eIF3 in this intriguing process at the molecular level, we have embarked on a study that aims to dissect the individual functions of each eIF3 subunit in translation initiation using the purified...
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Screening for the HCV IRES interacting proteins
Roučová, Kristina ; Pospíšek, Martin (advisor) ; Kuthan, Martin (referee)
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a worldwide spread pathogen infecting up to 3 % of the human population. Nowadays, research of new drugs against this virus is focused on the individual steps in its life cycle, including the translation initiation. In the case of HCV translation initiation is dependent on the internal ribosome entry site (IRES). Besides of components of the translational machinery also other components of the cell, so called IRES trans-acting factors (ITAF), contribute to its proper progress. This work continues in previous research of our laboratory focused on searching for new ITAF. In order to search for potential ITAF increasing HCV IRES activity new recombinant plasmid vectors and reference strains were prepared and selection conditions of the selection system were optimized. The differences in the growth characteristics of the reference strains were analyzed and quantified under selective and non-selective conditions. A set of pilot high efficiency transformations of the yeast strain pJ69-4A carrying bicistronic construct with HCV IRES were conducted using human expression cDNA library in order to optimize the efficiency of transformation and selection conditions and to attempt to identify new ITAF. Several dozens of randomly selected clones from these transformations obtained under...
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RNAi of the a subunit of human translation initiation factor 3 (eIF3).
Peclinovská, Lucie ; Stiborová, Marie (advisor) ; Martínková, Markéta (referee)
Translation initiation is the first step of protein synthesis that captures the flow of gene expression pathway in all living organisms. The advantage of regulation of gene expression at the level of translation initiation is that it allows for more rapid changes in the proteome and serves as the rate limiting step under certain conditions such as stress. This process is masterminded by many initiation factors. One of them, a multisubunit eukaryotic initiation factor 3 (eIF3), is a very efficient player in this field taking a part in the most of the initiation steps. The largest subunit of the eIF3 complex is called eIF3a p170 and TIF32 in mammals and yeast, respectively, and at least in yeast, it was shown to represent an essential constituent of the translational machinery. This work is based on all that has been learned about the eIF3a roles in translation initiation in the model organism of yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae in effort to examine the degree of the functional conservation with its human ortholog. This is achieved by the RNAi-mediated knock-down of eIF3a in HeLa and HEK cell lines followed by variety of well established assays to monitor translational status of eIF3a depleted cells. In the first part, I describe optimization of the RNA interference protocol with respect to the choice...
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Novel hepatitis C virus proteins
Zeman, Jakub ; Vopálenský, Václav (advisor) ; Horníková, Lenka (referee)
The hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major etiological agent of chronic liver diseases. More than 170 million people worldwide are chronically infected, and more than 100 thousand of them develop hepatocellular carcinoma a year. HCV is an enveloped, positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus (+ssRNA virus) of the family Flaviviridae. Its genome is translated to produce a single polyprotein precursor that is further processed by cellular and viral proteases to form 10 viral proteins. Moreover, there is another protein encoded in an alternative reading frame. Two alternative translation mechanisms have been proposed for expression of this alternative reading frame protein (ARFP): a frameshift mechanism and translation initiating from internal start codons. Despite ten years of research its role in vivo is not yet explained. It appears that secondary structures in the core encoding region of HCV genome but not ARFP expression are required for robust viral translation and replication. The results of recent studies suggest that mutations distorting these structures may result not only in slowing down the viral cycle but also in a brand new and utterly unusual serological profile in patients as well as an increased level of expression of ARFP.
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mTORC1 complex function in regulation of translation initiation
Holásková, Lucie ; Feketová, Zuzana (advisor) ; Čáp, Michal (referee)
My bachelor thesis deals with the effect of mTOR pathway to different processes in the cell. In particular, it focuses on the influence of translation initiation. mTOR protein is part of two complexes, which occur in different organisms - mTORC1 and mTORC2. Eukaryotic initiation factor 4E (eIF4E) plays an important role in controlling translation initiation. The activity of eIF4E protein is regulated by family of repressor 4E-binding proteins (4E-BPs). Linking these proteins to eIF4E is regulated by their phosphorylation state. For the release of 4E-BP1 from eIF4E, phosphorylation must occur at four phosphorylation sites (Thr37, Thr46, Ser65 and Thr70). The study also covers some of the other events that occur in the mTOR pathway.
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The role of eIF3 in mRNA recruitment to the 43S pre-initiation complex
Beznosková, Petra ; Mašek, Tomáš (referee) ; Valášek, Leoš (advisor)
Translation initiation in eukaryotes plays an important role in gene expression and relies on interactions between many eukaryotic initiation factors, small and large ribosomal subunits, mRNA and initiator tRNA. The largest of these initiation factors, the eukaryotic initiation factor 3 (eIF3), participates in the most of translation initiation reactions. In yeast, eIF3 occurs together with eIF1, eIF5 and ternary complex (TC, eIF2-GTP-Met-tRNAi Met complex) in the multifactor complex (MFC) and promotes formation of the 43S preinitiation complexes. eIF3 also stimulates mRNA recruitment to the 43S preinitiation complexes, scanning the 5' untranslated region of mRNA for AUG recognition and has an important role in the gene-specific translational control mechanism called reinitiation involving short upstream open reading frames (uORFs).
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