Translational control by secondary-structure formation in mRNA in a eukaryotic system

Eukaryotic mRNA has a cap structure at the 5′ end and a poly(A) tail at the 3′ end. The cap and poly(A) tail form a complex with multiple translation factors, and mRNA forms a circularized structure called a closed-loop model. This circularized structure reportedly not only stabilizes mRNA but also promotes ribosome recycling during translation, which improves translation efficiency. We designed an artificial mRNA that forms a circularized structure without a cap structure and poly(A) tail and found that its translational efficiency was improved compared with that of a sequence without the circularized structure in a eukaryotic translation system.