Co-Translational mRNA Decay in Plants: Recent advances and future directions

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent discoveries about co-translational mRNA decay in plants, highlighting its regulation, significance for development and stress responses, and future research directions in mRNA homeostasis.

Contribution

It summarizes recent advances in understanding the CTRD pathway in plants, emphasizing its regulatory mechanisms and biological importance.

Findings

CTRD couples mRNA translation and decay in plants.

Regulation of CTRD impacts plant development and stress responses.

Metrics for assessing CTRD activity are discussed.

Abstract

Tight regulation of messenger RNA (mRNA) stability is essential to ensure accurate gene expression in response to developmental and environmental cues. mRNA stability is controlled by mRNA decay pathways, which have traditionally been proposed to occur independently of translation. However, the recent discovery of a co-translational mRNA decay pathway (also known as CTRD) reveals that mRNA translation and decay can be coupled. While being translated, a mRNA can be targeted for degradation. This pathway was first described in yeast and rapidly identified in several plant species. This review explores recent advances in our understanding of CTRD in plants, emphasizing its regulation and its importance for development and stress response. The different metrics used to assess CTRD activity are also presented. Furthermore, this review outlines future directions to explore the importance of mRNA decay in maintaining mRNA homeostasis in plants.