Summary

A paradigm-shifting study from the Mourelatos Lab that shows "how that canonical human mRNAs are subject to repeated cotranslational and ribosome-phased endonucleolytic cuts at the exit site of the mRNA ribosome channel" in a process term ribothrypsis. The study uncovered "RNA G quadruplexes among likely ribothrypsis triggers" and shows that "ribothrypsis is a conserved process." Moreover, the Mourelatos Lab found that "mRNA fragments are abundant in living cells and thus have important implications for the interpretation of experiments, such as RNA-seq, that rely on the assumption that mRNAs exist largely as full-length molecules in vivo."