Question

A researcher wishes to increase the half-life of a particular mRNA that she is transfecting into a eukaryotic cell line. How should this researcher accomplish this goal?

a. Inhibit RNA polymerase I.
b. Increase the length of the poly(A) tail of the mRNA prior to transfection.
c. Inhibit the spliceosomes in the cell.
d. Increase the length of the 5'; cap of the mRNA prior to transfection.

Answer 1

Answer:

b. Increase the length of the poly(A) tail of the mRNA prior to transfection.

Explanation:

Polyadenylation is the addition of a long chain of adenine (A) nucleotides at the 3' end during RNA processing. This resultant chain is known as poly(A) tail. A poly-A tail generally has a size of 100-250 residues long. The poly(A) tail increases the stability of the messenger mRNA prior to the translation by slowing down its degradation rate over time. The process of polyadenylation enables RNA transcripts to be exported from the nucleus in order to be translated by ribosomes in the cytoplasm.