High impact information on Elf

• Thus the eRF1 and eRF3 mutations provide a tool for identifying nonsense alleles that are leaky [1].
• We suspect that the context of the stop codon is significant: nonsense alleles sensitive to suppression by eRF1 and eRF3 encode stop codons that are immediately followed by a cytidine [1].
• An affinity-purified antibody directed against the product of the dsup35 gene was prepared; interestingly, this antibody specifically labels primary spermatocytes in one or two discrete foci of unknown structure within the nucleoplasm [2].
• The dsup35(63D) mutation is caused by a P element insertion that affects, specifically in the testis, the expression of a gene (dsup35) encoding the Drosophila homolog of the yeast Sup35p and Xenopus eRF3 proteins [2].

Anatomical context of Elf

• In a screen for suppressors of the Drosophila wingless(PE4) nonsense allele, we isolated mutations in the two components that form eukaryotic release factor. eRF1 and eRF3 comprise the translation termination complex that recognizes stop codons and catalyzes the release of nascent polypeptide chains from ribosomes [1].

References