Poly(A) tail

Polyadenylation is the addition of a poly(A) tail to a messenger RNA. The poly(A) tail consists of multiple adenosine monophosphates; in other words, it is a stretch of RNA that has only adenine bases. In eukaryotes, polyadenylation is part of the process that produces mature messenger RNA (mRNA) for translation. It, therefore, forms part of the larger process of gene expression.

The process of polyadenylation begins as the transcription of a gene terminates. The 3'-most segment of the newly made pre-mRNA is first cleaved off by a set of proteins; these proteins then synthesize the poly(A) tail at the RNA's 3' end. In some genes these proteins add a poly(A) tail at one of several possible sites. Therefore, polyadenylation can produce more than one transcript from a single gene (alternative polyadenylation), similar to alternative splicing.

The poly(A) tail is important for the nuclear export, translation, and stability of mRNA. The tail is shortened over time, and, when it is short enough, the mRNA is enzymatically degraded. However, in a few cell types, mRNAs with short poly(A) tails are stored for later activation by re-polyadenylation in the cytosol. In contrast, when polyadenylation occurs in bacteria, it promotes RNA degradation. This is also sometimes the case for eukaryotic non-coding RNAs.

mRNA molecules in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes have polyadenylated 3'-ends, with the prokaryotic poly(A) tails generally shorter and less mRNA molecules polyadenylated.

RNAs are a type of large biological molecules, whose individual building blocks are called nucleotides. The name poly(A) tail (for polyadenylic acid tail) reflects the way RNA nucleotides are abbreviated, with a letter for the base the nucleotide contains (A for adenine, C for cytosine, G for guanine and U for uracil). RNAs are produced (transcribed) from a DNA template. By convention, RNA sequences are written in a 5' to 3' direction. The 5' end is the part of the RNA molecule that is transcribed first, and the 3' end is transcribed last. The 3' end is also where the poly(A) tail is found on polyadenylated RNAs.

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