Transcription post-transcriptional modification

Once a gene is cloned it is necessary to convert the information contained in it into a functional protein. There are a number of steps in gene expression (i) transcription of DNA into mRNA (ii) translation of the mRNA into a protein sequence and (iii) in some instances, post-translational modification of the protein. In discussing these steps in more detail, expression of a cloned insulin gene will be used as an example. 

Menon, K.M.J., Clouser, C.L., and Nair, A.K. 2005. Gonadotropin receptors role of post-translational modifications and post-transcriptional regulation. Endocrine 26(3), 249-257. 

Manipulation of one enzymatic step in a system can have wide reaching consequences because of the interplay between metabolite levels and a wide range of regulatory circuits. These circuits can operate at the level of transcription, translation, post-translational modification, or through allosteric and competitive influences on the kinetic properties of enzymes. 

In addition to the role for the nucleosome-nucleosome interactions, the histone tails are known as the region that undergoes post-transcriptional modifications, such as acetylation, phosphorylation, and methylation (Fig. Ic) (Peterson and Laniel, 2004). These modifications trigger the formation of euchromatin (acetylation), heterochromatin (methylation), or metaphase chromosome (phosphorylation). The details of these modifications will be described in chapters 8-11. 

Moreover, overexpression of the same mutants inhibit DNA replication and block the cells at the Gl/S-phase transition (Kim et al, 2005), emphasizing the potential role of nucleolin mobilization. It is therefore highly probable that two different processes help the formation of RPA-nucleolin complexes after a genotoxic stress a post-transcriptional modification of nucleolin that renders the GAR domain of nucleolin accessible to RPA, and its p53-dependent relocalization to the nucleoplasm where a higher amount of RPA is available. Of importance, nucleolin relocalization is transient and lasts far less than replication inhibition (Daniely and Borowiec, 2000). This means that nucleolin-RPA interaction is only an initial event and that other mechanisms account for prolonged replication inhibition. 

Vitamin K is a component of the carboxylase enzyme that carboxylates the amino acid glutamate in proteins to form y-carboxyglutamate, which binds calcium ions i.e. it catalyses a post-transcriptional modification. Proteins so carboxylated include clotting factors (Factors 11, Vll, IX, and X) and two proteins in bone oesteocalcin (known as matrix-gln-protein) and bone gin protein (BGP). The... 

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