Fragile X mental retardation protein is associated with translating polyribosomes in neuronal cells. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • Fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP) is an RNA binding protein encoded by the gene FMR1, whose expression is impaired in patients with fragile X mental retardation. The association of FMRP with polyribosomes in non-neural cell lines has previously suggested that FMRP is involved in translational regulation. However, the relevance of these studies to neuronal function has been questioned by the finding that FMRP in brain is not associated with polyribosomes, but is part of small ribonucleo-protein complexes that do not appear to include ribosomes. Here we optimize methods to analyze brain polyribosomes, allowing us to definitively demonstrate that FMRP forms complexes with cortical brain polyribosomes. Moreover, we demonstrate in neuroblastoma cells that the FMRP-polyribosome complexes are sensitive to puromycin, a drug that targets actively translating ribosomes. These data indicate that FMRP associates with functional polyribosomes in neurons.

publication date

  • August 18, 2004

Research

keywords

  • Nerve Tissue Proteins
  • Neurons
  • Polyribosomes
  • RNA-Binding Proteins

Identity

PubMed Central ID

  • PMC6729764

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 7244224871

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2306-04.2004

PubMed ID

  • 15317853

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 24

issue

  • 33