美国霍华德休斯医学研究所Kavita J. Rangan和Samara L. Reck-Peterson合作发现，头足类动物中的RNA重新编码调整微管运动蛋白的功能。相关论文发表在2023年6月8日出版的《细胞》杂志上。

研究人员揭示了头足类动物RNA重新编码在微管运动蛋白驱动蛋白和动力蛋白中的功能。研究人员发现乌贼在应对海洋温度变化时迅速采用RNA重新编码，在寒冷的海水中产生的驱动蛋白变体在寒冷环境下进行的单分子实验中显示出增强的运动特性。研究人员还确定了组织特异性的重新编码的乌贼驱动蛋白变体，这些变体表现出不同的运动特性。最后, 研究人员发现头足类的重编码位点可以指导非头足类的驱动蛋白和动力蛋白的功能替换。因此，RNA重新编码是一种动态机制，在头足类动物中产生表型的可塑性，并可以为保守的非头足类蛋白质的特征提供信息。

据介绍，RNA编辑是一个广泛的表观遗传过程，可以改变蛋白质的氨基酸序列，称为“重新编码”。在头足类动物中，大多数转录本是重新编码的，重新编码被认为是产生表型可塑性的一种适应性策略。然而，动物如何动态地使用RNA再编码在很大程度上还没有被探索。

附：英文原文

Title: RNA recoding in cephalopods tailors microtubule motor protein function

Author: Kavita J. Rangan, Samara L. Reck-Peterson

Issue&Volume: 2023/06/08

Abstract: RNA editing is a widespread epigenetic process that can alter the amino acid sequence of proteins, termed “recoding.” In cephalopods, most transcripts are recoded, and recoding is hypothesized to be an adaptive strategy to generate phenotypic plasticity. However, how animals use RNA recoding dynamically is largely unexplored. We investigated the function of cephalopod RNA recoding in the microtubule motor proteins kinesin and dynein. We found that squid rapidly employ RNA recoding in response to changes in ocean temperature, and kinesin variants generated in cold seawater displayed enhanced motile properties in single-molecule experiments conducted in the cold. We also identified tissue-specific recoded squid kinesin variants that displayed distinct motile properties. Finally, we showed that cephalopod recoding sites can guide the discovery of functional substitutions in non-cephalopod kinesin and dynein. Thus, RNA recoding is a dynamic mechanism that generates phenotypic plasticity in cephalopods and can inform the characterization of conserved non-cephalopod proteins.

DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2023.04.032

Source: https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(23)00466-X