Atomic force microscopy reveals binding of mRNA to microtubules mediated by two major mRNP proteins YB-1 and PABP

Konstantin G. Chernov (1, 2) , Patrick Curmi (1) , Loic Hamon (1) , Alain Mechulam (1) , Lev Ovchinnikov (2) , David Pastre (1)

1 SABNP - Structure et activité des biomolécules normales et pathologiques
2 Institute of Protein Research, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pushchino

A significant fraction of mRNAs is known to be asso-ciated in the form of mRNPs with microtubules for active trans-port. However, little is known about the interaction betweenmRNPs and microtubules and most of previous works were fo-cused on molecular motor:microtubule interactions. Here, wehave identified, via high resolution atomic force microscopyimaging, a significant binding of mRNA to microtubules medi-ated by two major mRNP proteins, YB-1 and PABP. This inter-action with microtubules could be of critical importance foractive mRNP traffic and for mRNP granule formation. A similarrole may be fulfilled by other cationic mRNA partners.

Keywords: Microtubule; PABP; RNP; Atomic forcemicroscopy; YB-1; RNA

Domains: Life Sciences [q-bio]

Konstantin G. Chernov, Patrick Curmi, Loic Hamon, Alain Mechulam, Lev Ovchinnikov, et al.. Atomic force microscopy reveals binding of mRNA to microtubules mediated by two major mRNP proteins YB-1 and PABP. FEBS Letters, 2008, 582 (19), pp.2875-2881. ⟨10.1016/j.febslet.2008.07.019⟩. ⟨hal-02295333⟩