{"doi":"10.3390/ijms21176238","title":"uORFs: Important Cis-Regulatory Elements in Plants","abstract":"<jats:p>Gene expression is regulated at many levels, including mRNA transcription, translation, and post-translational modification. Compared with transcriptional regulation, mRNA translational control is a more critical step in gene expression and allows for more rapid changes of encoded protein concentrations in cells. Translation is highly regulated by complex interactions between cis-acting elements and trans-acting factors. Initiation is not only the first phase of translation, but also the core of translational regulation, because it limits the rate of protein synthesis. As potent cis-regulatory elements in eukaryotic mRNAs, upstream open reading frames (uORFs) generally inhibit the translation initiation of downstream major ORFs (mORFs) through ribosome stalling. During the past few years, with the development of RNA-seq and ribosome profiling, functional uORFs have been identified and characterized in many organisms. Here, we review uORF identification, uORF classification, and uORF-mediated translation initiation. More importantly, we summarize the translational regulation of uORFs in plant metabolic pathways, morphogenesis, disease resistance, and nutrient absorption, which open up an avenue for precisely modulating the plant growth and development, as well as environmental adaption. Additionally, we also discuss prospective applications of uORFs in plant breeding.</jats:p>","journal":"International Journal of Molecular Sciences","year":2020,"id":21584,"datarank":2.0011793362816257,"base_score":4.23410650459726,"endowment":4.23410650459726,"self_citation_contribution":0.635115975689589,"citation_network_contribution":1.3660633605920367,"self_endowment_contribution":0.635115975689589,"citer_contribution":1.3660633605920367,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":68,"citer_count":66,"citers_with_citation_signal":53,"citers_with_endowment":53,"datacite_reuse_total":10,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":null,"fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":138419,"name":"Anqi Wu","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":138420,"name":"Yaping Yue","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":73745,"name":"Yu Zhao","orcid":"0000-0003-4451-9907","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":15438,"name":"Ting Zhang","orcid":"0000-0003-4773-2826","position":0,"is_corresponding":false}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":{"has_enrichment":true,"base_score":4.23410650459726,"endowment":4.23410650459726,"datacite_reuse_total":10,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"views":0,"has_version_chain":false,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"pmid":"32872304","pmcid":"PMC7503886","openalex_id":"https://openalex.org/W3082019614","authors":[],"funders":[{"funder_name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","grant_id":"31371468","title":null},{"funder_name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","grant_id":"31970806","title":null}],"total_grants":2,"fwci":2.9173,"citation_percentile":0.92049418,"influential_citations":1,"citation_trend":[{"year":2021,"count":7},{"year":2022,"count":9},{"year":2023,"count":19},{"year":2024,"count":12},{"year":2025,"count":12},{"year":2026,"count":9}],"oa_status":"gold","license":"cc-by","oa_locations":[{"url":"https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/21/17/6238/pdf?version=1598616899","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/21/17/6238/pdf?version=1598616899","host_type":"GOLD"},{"url":"https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/21/17/6238/pdf?version=1598616899","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/21/17/6238/pdf","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms21176238","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32872304","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://doaj.org/article/4f1cd09ce7514e80b1dba7200d00533c","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms21176238","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/7503886","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7503886","host_type":"Europe_PMC"},{"url":"https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC7503886?pdf=render","host_type":"Europe_PMC"}],"fields_of_study":["RNA and protein synthesis mechanisms","Photosynthetic Processes and Mechanisms","CRISPR and Genetic Engineering","Medicine","Biology","Environmental Science","Gene Expression Regulation, Plant","Open Reading Frames","Plant Breeding","Plant Proteins","Plants","Protein Biosynthesis","Ribosomes","Sequence Analysis, RNA"],"mesh_terms":["Plant Breeding","Plant Proteins","Plants","Ribosomes","Protein Biosynthesis","Open Reading Frames","Sequence Analysis, RNA","Gene Expression Regulation, Plant"],"keywords":["Ribosome profiling","Translational regulation","Biology","Upstream open reading frame","Five prime untranslated region","ORFS","Eukaryotic translation","Translation (biology)","Internal ribosome entry site","Eukaryotic initiation factor","Computational biology","Open reading frame","Protein biosynthesis","Genetics","Gene","Initiation factor","Cell biology","Messenger RNA","Peptide sequence","Disease resistance","Plant breeding","Morphogenesis","Metabolic pathways","Nutrient 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