PRRC2 proteins are translation factors that promote leaky scanning

Most animal mRNAs contain upstream Open Reading Frames (uORFs). These uORFs represent an impediment to translation of the main ORF since ribosomes usually bind the mRNA cap at the 5' end and then scan for ORFs in a 5'-to-3' fashion. One way for ribosomes to bypass uORFs is via leaky scanning, whereby the ribosome disregards the uORF start codon. Hence leaky scanning is an important post-transcriptional mechanism affecting gene expression. Few molecular factors regulating or facilitating this process are known. Here we identify the PRRC2 proteins PRRC2A, PRRC2B and PRRC2C as translation initiation factors. We find that they bind other eukaryotic translation initiation factors and preinitiation complexes and are enriched on ribosomes translating mRNAs with uORFs. We find that PRRC2 proteins promote translation of mRNAs containing uORFs by facilitating leaky scanning past uORFs. Since PRRC2 proteins have been associated with cancer, this provides a mechanistic starting point for understanding their physiological and pathophysiological roles. Overall design: Selective and total 40S and 80S ribosome footprinting in control versus PRRC2A+B+C knockdown condition. Selective Ribosome footprinting for PRRC2C. Also RNA-seq.