New Discovery Reveals How Cells Defend Themselves During Stressful Situations

Stress granules play a crucial role in the stress response, arising from the aggregation of non-translating mRNAs and proteins. Although significant knowledge exists about stress granules, the mechanisms behind their mRNA localization remain partially understood. Alterations to mRNA can change the characteristics of the nucleobases, influencing key processes like translation, splicing, and the positioning of specific transcripts.

The researchers show that the RNA modification N4-acetylcytidine (ac4C) on mRNA associates with transcripts enriched in stress granules and that stress granule localized transcripts with ac4C are specifically translationally regulated.