Transcriptional slippage occurs during elongation at runs of adenine or thymine in Escherichia coli
Open accessAbstract
A run of 11 adenine or thymine residues at the 5' end of an out-of-frame lacZ gene causes a high level of beta-galactosidase expression in E. coli. This effect was not observed for a run of guanine residues. Reverse transcription of mRNA isolated from E. coli containing the run of 11 A's reveals heterogeneity of transcript length while reverse transcription of mRNA isolated from S. cerevisiae containing the same gene shows no heterogeneity. Protein sequencing of the beta-galactosidase molecules derived from the out-of-frame construct containing a run of adenines reveals the addition of a lysine at the run. A new method was developed where messages small enough to allow resolution of single nucleotide differences on an acrylamide gel are electrophoresed, electroblotted onto nylon and probed. This confirmed the reverse transcription results and showed that additional residues can be added to transcripts derived from DNA containing 10 or 11 thymine residues. A mechanism for slippage is discussed where the A-U rich RNA-DNA hybrid can denature during elongation and rehybridize in an offset position, causing the addition of extra residues to the transcript.
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Codons in combination with surrounding nucleotides can form mononucleotide repeats, which may cause transcriptional or translational slippage.
“In addition, codons in combination with surrounding nucleotides can form mononucleotide repeats, which may cause transcriptional [8,9] or translational [10] slippage.”
From Preferred and avoided codon pairs in three domains of life (2008) · cites this paper as [9]
The title (p. 3529) states that transcriptional slippage occurs at runs of adenine or thymine, supporting the transcriptional-slippage part of the claim. The available passage does not say that codons combine with surrounding nucleotides to form those runs. The separate citation for translational slippage is not being judged here. (LLM, conf=0.77)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredMononucleotide repeats, especially poly(A) and poly(U) tracts, cause transcriptional and translational frameshifting.
“Mononucleotide repeats, especially poly(A) and poly(U) tracts, are also known to cause transcriptional and translational frameshifting [8-10].”
From Preferred and avoided codon pairs in three domains of life (2008) · cites this paper as [9]
The title (p. 3529) identifies transcriptional slippage at runs of adenine or thymine in E. coli, supporting the transcriptional part of the claim. The available passage does not address translational frameshifting or establish the claim for mononucleotide repeats generally. (LLM, conf=0.82)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredCodon pair preferences can be shaped by decrease of frameshifting errors through avoidance of mononucleotide repeats.
“One is the possible decrease of frameshifting errors through avoidance of mononucleotide repeats [8-10].”
From Preferred and avoided codon pairs in three domains of life (2008) · cites this paper as [9]
The available passage (title, p. 3529) says that transcriptional slippage occurs at runs of adenine or thymine in E. coli, supporting the connection between nucleotide repeats and slippage. It does not say that avoiding those repeats decreases frameshifting errors or shapes codon-pair preferences; searches for those terms returned no further passages. (LLM, conf=0.72)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
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References 34 · Cited by 132
- Authors
- Wagner, L. A., Weiss, R. B., Driscoll, R., Dunn, D. S., & Gesteland, R. F.
- Affiliations
- University of Utah (US)
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute (US)
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US)
- Corresponding author
- Wagner, Lori A.
- ORCID
- Weiss, Robert B.
- Venue
- Nucleic Acids Research
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 1990
- Volume
- 18
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 3529-3535
- ISSN
- 0305-1048 (ISSN-L)
- 1362-4962
- PMC
- PMC331007
- OpenAlex
- W2017990250
- Cited by
- 132
- References
- 34
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 1.57
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Nucleic Acids Research (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › RNA and protein synthesis mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Bacterial Genetics and Biotechnology
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › RNA Research and Splicing
- Keywords
- transcriptional slippage, RNA-DNA hybrids, RNA polymerase elongation, beta-galactosidase, Escherichia coli, Saccharomyces cerevisiae
- MeSH terms
- Adenine, Base Sequence, Cloning, Molecular, Escherichia coli, Lac Operon, Molecular Sequence Data, Plasmids, RNA, Fungal, RNA, Messenger, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Thymine, Transcription, Genetic
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