![]() The ability to control translation by external triggers-especially by light-would greatly enrich our ability to dissect cellular processes at the molecular level with high spatio-temporal precision. In nature, the initiation phase of translation is the target of multiple types of regulatory intervention, enabling confinement of gene expression to a certain time span and cell region, for example, in neurons or multicellular organisms 5, 17. Therefore, production of mRNAs for biological studies and therapeutic applications routinely involves in vitro transcription in the presence of synthetic cap analogues to obtain 5′-capped mRNAs 14, 15, 16 (Fig. RNA without the 5′ cap is barely translated and is highly immunogenic 11, 12, 13. The closed loop promotes recruitment of the small ribosomal subunit (40S) and the complex enters the next initiation stages, leading to formation of the 80S ribosome and translation (Fig. Together with the poly(A) tail at the 3′ end, the 5′ cap forms an mRNA ‘closed-loop’, facilitated by interactions between the cap-binding eIFs and the poly(A)-binding protein (PABP). Dedicated decapping enzymes (Dcp1-2, DcpS) are required for mRNA turnover and homeostasis 9, 10. The 5′ cap is also crucial for many mRNA processing and quality control steps and protects eukaryotic mRNAs from degradation by exonucleases 3, 5, 8. Importantly, the molecular contacts with the cap are sequence-independent, that is, they are identical for all mRNAs 7. The 5′ cap plays a key role in translation initiation, as the N7-methylated guanosine is essential for recognition by the translation initiation factor eIF4E (Fig. Higher-order cap structures contain additional methyl groups 6. Together, these results demonstrate that FlashCaps offer a route to regulate the expression of any given mRNA and to dose mRNA therapeutics with spatio-temporal control.Ī hallmark of eukaryotic mRNAs is their 5′ cap, which, in its simplest form (cap 0), links an N7-methylated guanosine to the first transcribed nucleotide via a 5′-5′ triphosphate bridge (Fig. FlashCaps overcome the problem of remaining sequence or structure changes in mRNA after irradiation that limited previous designs. Irradiation restores the native cap, triggering efficient translation. In FlashCap-mRNAs, the single photocaging group abrogates translation in vitro and in mammalian cells without increasing immunogenicity. ![]() These compounds are compatible with the general and efficient production of mRNAs by in vitro transcription. Here we report 5′ cap analogues with photo-cleavable groups (FlashCaps) that prohibit binding to eIF4E and resist cleavage by decapping enzymes. The primary hallmark of eukaryotic mRNAs is their 5′ cap, whose molecular contacts to the eukaryotic translation initiation factor eIF4E govern the initiation of translation. The translation of messenger RNA (mRNA) is a fundamental process in gene expression, and control of translation is important to regulate protein synthesis in cells.
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