Dear folks,
I was wondering about the UTR region. As far as I understand, it is not in the DNA sequence and so is later added in the mRNA ( Am I right?). Who adds it? Is the RNA polymerase? There are different UTRs that affect the translation levels and mRNA stability. But if its not in the DNA, how can I modify them?
I am lacking knowledge in this field and some help would be much appreciated, some articles and reviews too.
Thank you in advance for your help,
Nico
UTR are the untranslated parts of exons, this will include full exons and as well as fractions of exons. You can get a map of them by taking the logical difference of the exons and the coding exons. These coordinate definitions are available for any set of gene definitions, e.g. RefSeq
Thanks for your answer Mark. So UTR is already present in the coding gene? After the starting atg? I think I am missing something as those first codons do translate into aminoacids.
Hi Nico,
Yes, the UTRs are features of the DNA strand that will be transcribed: one is immediately upstream (5' UTR) of the start codon (ATG) and the other is immediately downstream (3' UTR) of the stop codon. They are both part of the mature mRNA transcript, but are not translated (hence the acronym UTR). Although the UTRs are part of the exons that are retained after the introns have been spliced out, I wouldn't consider them to be 'coding.'
I hope this helps.
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