Translational regulation in response to boron in Arabidopsis thaliana

We previously reported that ribosome stalling at AUG-stop sequences in the 5'-UTR plays a critical role in regulating the expression of Arabidopsis thaliana NIP5;1, which encodes a boron uptake transporter, in response to boron conditions in media. Here, we conducted ribosome profiling analysis to reveal the genome-wide regulation of translation in response to boron conditions in A. thaliana. We identified 460 translationally regulated genes. Transcripts with reduced translation efficiency were rich in upstream open reading frames (uORFs), highlighting the importance of uORF-mediated translational regulation. We found that 148 uORF instances had greater ribosome density under high boron conditions. Moreover, translationally downregulated transcripts were rich in minimum uORFs (AUG-stops), suggesting that AUG-stops play a global role in the boron response. Boron increased the ribosome occupancy of stop codons, indicating that this element is involved in global translational termination processes. Whole shoot tissues of 14-day-old Arabidopsis thaliana grown under three different boric acid concentrations (–B, 0.3 µM; Ctrl, 30 µM; ++B, 500 µM). 2 biological replicates.