Iron-responsive elements (IREs) are evolutionarily conserved hairpin stem-loop structures containing 26-30 nucleotides.  The terminal loop sequence is 5'-CAGUGN-3' (N can be C, U, or A, but never G).  There is a conserved UGC or C bulge five bases upstream of the terminal loop.  The five-base-pair helix between the terminal loop and the bulge is called IRE upper stem.  The distance and spatial relationship between the terminal loop and the bulge of IRE is critical for iron regulatory protein (IRP) binding.  The upper stem parameters, including base sequence and local distortion, play an important role in holding the orientation of the terminal loop and the bulge.  For this study, IREs located in the 5' and 3' untranslated regions (UTRs) of mammalian mRNAs were investigated.  Some characteristics of the IRE upper stems were discovered and interpreted.

Characteristics of IRE upper stems in mammalian mRNAs

247th National Meeting (2014)

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