Published in

MDPI, Molecules, 11(20), p. 20832-20840, 2015

DOI: 10.3390/molecules201119733

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Identification of RNA Oligonucleotides Binding to Several Proteins from Potential G-Quadruplex Forming Regions in Transcribed Pre-mRNA

Journal article published in 2015 by Taiki Saito, Wataru Yoshida ORCID, Tomomi Yokoyama, Koichi Abe, Kazunori Ikebukuro
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

G-quadruplexes (G4s) are noncanonical DNA/RNA structures formed by guanine-rich sequences. Recently, G4s have been found not only in aptamers but also in the genomic DNA and transcribed RNA. In this study, we identified new RNA oligonucleotides working as aptamers by focusing on G4-forming RNAs located within the pre-mRNA. We showed that the G4 in the 5' UTR and first intron of VEGFA bound to the protein encoded in VEGFA gene, VEGF165, with high affinity. Moreover, G4-forming RNAs located within the PDGFA and the PDGFB introns bound to PDGF-AA and PDGF-BB, respectively, indicating that G4 in the pre-mRNA could be an aptamer. It had been reported that the putative G4-forming RNA sequences are located in some parts of most genes, thus our strategy for aptamer identification could be applicable to other proteins. It has been reported that some G4-forming RNAs in 5' UTRs are involved in translation control; however, G4-forming excised intronic RNA function has not been revealed previously. Therefore, these findings could not only contribute to the identification of RNA aptamers but also provide new insights into the biological functioning of G4-forming RNAs located within intronic RNA sequences.