Role of highly conserved pyrimidine-rich sequences in the 3' untranslated region of the GAP-43 mRNA in mRNA stability and RNA-protein interactions.

We have shown previously that the mRNA for the growth-associated protein GAP-43 is selectively stabilized during neuronal differentiation. In this study, we explored the role of its highly conserved 3' untranslated region (3'UTR) in mRNA stability and RNA-protein interactions. The 3'UTRs of the rat and chicken GAP-43 mRNAs show 78% sequence identity, which is equivalent to the conservation of their coding regions. In rat PC12 cells stably transfected with the full-length rat or chicken GAP-43 cDNAs, the transgene mRNAs decayed with same half-life of about 3 h. The GAP-43 3'UTR also caused the rabbit beta-globin mRNA to decay with a half-life of 4 h, indicating that the major determinants for GAP-43 mRNA stability are localized in its highly conserved 3'UTR. Three brain cytosolic RNA-binding proteins (molecular mass 40, 65 and 95 kDa) were found to interact with both the rat and chicken GAP-43 mRNAs. These RNA-protein interactions were specific and involved pyrimidine-rich sequences in the 3'UTR. Like the GAP-43 mRNA, the activity of these proteins was enriched in brain and increased during development. We propose that highly conserved pyrimidine-rich sequences in the 3'UTR of this mRNA regulate GAP-43 gene expression via interactions with specific RNA-binding proteins.