Control of cellular translation by endogenous RNA G-quadruplex structures

Four-stranded G-quadruplex (G4) structures form guanine-rich tracts, but their role in RNA biology remains poorly defined. Herein, we first delineate the presence of endogenous RNA G4s in the human cellular transcriptome by proxy of their binding to interacting proteins, DHX36, GRSF1 and DDX3X. We then demonstrate that a sub-population of these RNA G4s are reliably detected as folded structures in cross-linked cellular lysates using the G4 structure-specific antibody BG4. The 5' UTRs of protein-coding mRNAs show significant enrichment in such folded RNA G4s, particularly within mRNA for ribosomal proteins. As G4s in ribosomal mRNA are evolutionarily conserved in higher vertebrates this points to a common mode for translational co-regulation mediated by RNA G4 structures. Supporting this we find that G4-stabilising small molecules inhibit the translation of ribosomal protein mRNA and significantly down-regulate cellular translation. Overall design: DHX36 and GRSF1 iCLIP in combination with BG4 crosslinked RIP for mapping cellular RNA G4s. Polysome profiling experiments to detect alterations in translation. RNA-seq experiments in HEK293FT cells expressing the tagged proteins DHX36 WT and GRSF1