Abstract
Dis3L2 constitutes a novel, uridylation-connected 3'–5' degradation pathway for cytoplasmic RNA in both yeast and mammals.
EMBO J
32
13
,
1855
–
1868
doi:10.1038/emboj.2013.135; published online
06
11
2013
EMBO J
32
13
,
1842
–
1854
doi:10.1038/emboj.2013.63; published online
03
15
2013
Nature
497
:
244
–
248
doi:10.1038/nature12119
Regulated degradation plays a major role in determining the levels of both non-coding (miRNA) and coding (mRNA) transcripts. Thus, insights into the factors and pathways that influence this process have broad, interdisciplinary implications. New findings by
Malecki et al (2013)
,
Lubas et al (2013)
, and
Chang et al (2013)
identify the protein Dis3L2 as a major player in the 3′–5′ exonucleolytic decay of transcripts. Furthermore, they demonstrate a strong connection between terminal uridylation of the RNA substrate and enzymatic activity.