Genetic screens identify connections between ribosome recycling and nonsense mediated decay
The decay of messenger RNA with a premature termination codon (PTC) by nonsense mediated decay (NMD) is an important regulatory pathway for eukaryotes and an essential pathway in mammals. NMD is typically triggered by the ribosome terminating at a stop codon that is aberrantly distant from the poly-A tail. Here, we use a fluorescence screen to identify factors involved in NMD in S. cerevisiae . In addition to the known NMD factors, including the entire UPF family (UPF1, UPF2 and UPF3), as well as NMD4 and EBS1 , we identify factors known to function in post-termination recycling and characterize their contribution to NMD. We then use a series of modified reporter constructs that block both elongating and scanning ribosomes downstream of stop codons and demonstrate that a deficiency in recycling of 80S ribosomes or 40S subunits stabilizes NMD substrates. These observations in S. cerevisiae expand on recently reported data in mammals indicating that the 60S recycling factor ABCE1 is important for NMD (1,2) by showing that increased activities of both elongating and scanning ribosomes (80S or 40S) in the 3’UTR correlate with a loss of NMD.