Effects of nonsense mutations on nuclear and cytoplasmic adenine phosphoribosyltransferase RNA.

We have analyzed Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell mutants bearing nonsense codons in four of the five exons of the adenine phosphoribosyltransferase (aprt) gene and have found a pattern of mRNA reduction similar to that seen in systems studied previously: a decrease in steady-state mRNA levels of 5- to 10-fold for mutations in exons 1, 2, and 4 but little effect for mutations in the 3'-most exon (exon 5). Nuclear aprt mRNA levels showed a similar decrease. Nonsense-containing aprt mRNA decayed at the same rate as wild-type mRNA in these cell lines after inhibition of transcription with actinomycin D. Nonsense-containing aprt mRNA is associated with polysomes, ruling out a model in which stable residual mRNA escapes degradation by avoiding translation initiation. A tetracycline-responsive form of the aprt gene was used to compare the stability of nonsense-containing and wild-type aprt mRNAs without globally inhibiting transcription. In contrast to measurements made in the presence of actinomycin D, after inhibition of aprt transcription with tetracycline, a nonsense-mediated destabilization of aprt mRNA was indeed demonstrable. The increased rate of decay of cytoplasmic aprt mRNA seen here could account for the nonsense-mediated reduction in steady-state levels of aprt mRNA. However, the low levels of nonsense-bearing aprt mRNA in the nucleus suggest a sensibility of mRNA to translation or translatability before it exits that compartment. Quantitation of the steady-state levels of transcripts containing introns revealed no accumulation of partially spliced aprt RNA and hence no indication of nonsense-mediated aberrancies in splicing. Our results are consistent with a model in which translation facilitates the export of mRNA through a nuclear pore. However, the mechanism of this intriguing nucleocytoplasmic communication remains to be determined.