An inspection of the domain between putative TATA box and translation start site in 79 plant genes

TLDR

Previous studies on eukaryotic mRNAs, largely derived from animal data, suggested a different pattern. The authors collected over 75 plant genomic DNA sequences and analyzed the flanking leader regions. They found that in most plant genes the first AUG on processed mRNA serves as the translation start, with a consensus context sequence TAAACAATGGCT, leader lengths of 40–80 nt that are A+T rich, an adenine transcription start site flanked by pyrimidines, and a putative TATA box 32 ± 7 nt upstream with consensus TCACTATATATAG.

Abstract

Over 75 published genomic DNA sequences from several higher plants have been collected and flanking regions of the leader sequences have been analysed. In a majority of the plants, the first AUG codon on processed mRNA acted as a translation initiation site. The consensus sequence for the context was TAAACAATGGCT (on plus strand of DNA). This differed from the earlier suggestion for eukaryotic mRNAs based mainly on data from animals. Leader sequences were generally 40– 80 nucleotides in length and were A+T rich. Adenine was present in a majority of the cases at the transcription start site which was flanked by pyrimidine bases. The putative TATA box was present 32± 7 nucleotides upstream from the transcription initiation site. The consensus sequence for TATA box and surrounding region was TCACTATATATAG.