polyadenylation
Sign in to savethumb|430px|Typical structure of a mature eukaryotic mRNA
Article
16 sectionsContents
- Background on RNA
- Nuclear polyadenylation
- Function
- Mechanism
- Downstream effects
- Deadenylation
- Cytoplasmic polyadenylation
- Alternative polyadenylation
- Tagging for degradation in eukaryotes
- In prokaryotes and organelles
- Evolution
- History
- See also
- References
- Further reading
- External links
thumb|430px|Typical structure of a mature eukaryotic mRNA
Polyadenylation is the addition of a poly(A) tail to an RNA transcript, typically a messenger RNA (mRNA). The poly(A) tail consists of multiple adenosine monophosphates; in other words, it is a stretch of RNA that has only adenine bases. In eukaryotes, polyadenylation is part of the process that produces mature mRNA for translation. In many bacteria, the poly(A) tail promotes degradation of the mRNA. It, therefore, forms part of the larger process of gene expression.