Translational control by RINGO/Spy

As published in the January 15th issue of G&D, Dr. Joel Richter’s laboratory at UMASS Medical School has identified a critical role for the RINGO/Spy protein in the control of cytoplasmic polyadenylation. CPEB is a highly conserved, sequence-specific RNA-binding protein that modulates polyadenylation, and thereby mRNA translation. Dr. Richter and his graduate student, Kiran Padmanabhan, now show that CPEB phosphorylation (and subsequent activation) is regulated by RINGO/Spy in Xenopus oocytes.

Further analysis revealed that RINGO/Spy mRNA translation is under the control of the Pumilio protein, Pum2. “Because CPEB-mediated translation is important not only for germ cell development but also for early embryonic cell division and neuronal synaptic plasticity and hippocampal-dependent memories, these new results are likely to have a broad impact on these areas of investigation,” explains Dr. Richter.