1. Introduction
Most eukaryotic mRNAs are translated by the scanning mechanism, which begins with the assembly of a 43S preinitiation complex containing the small (40S) ribosomal subunit loaded with the Met-tRNA
iMet initiator and several initiation factors (eIFs). The 43S PIC binds to the 5′-end of mRNA, with eIF4F bound to the m
7G cap (comprised of cap-binding protein eIF4E, scaffolding subunit eIF4G, and DEAD-box RNA helicase eIF4A), and scans the 5′-untranslated region (UTR) to identify the start codon. The 48S PIC joins with the large (60S) subunit to form an 80S initiation complex ready to begin protein synthesis (reviewed in [
1,
2]). Both 43S PIC attachment to mRNA and subsequent scanning are inhibited by secondary structures in the mRNA 5′UTR [
3] that are thought to be resolved by DEAD/H-box RNA helicases. The association of eIF4A with eIF4F should facilitate the unwinding of cap-proximal structures; however, other helicases, including Dhx29 in mammals and Ded1/Ddx3 in budding yeast, are additionally required to resolve cap-distal structures that impede scanning (reviewed in [
4,
5]).
eIF4A is required for 48S PIC assembly in vitro for all mRNAs tested regardless of their structural complexity [
6,
7]. Evidence suggests that mammalian eIF4A remodels the 40S subunit to enhance PIC attachment [
8] and might facilitate the threading of the 5′-end of mRNA into the 40S entry channel [
9]. The ribosome footprint profiling of a yeast eIF4A temperature-sensitive mutant (
tif1-ts) revealed that, despite a strong reduction in bulk polysome assembly, the inactivation of eIF4A markedly reduced the relative translational efficiencies (TEs) of less than 40 mRNAs [
10], suggesting that the majority of mRNAs have similar requirements for eIF4A in yeast cells. In contrast, a comparable inactivation of Ded1 in a cold-sensitive Ded1 mutant (
ded1-cs) was found to reduce the relative TEs of >1100 mRNAs, and these Ded1-hyperdependent mRNAs displayed a marked tendency for long, structure-prone 5′UTRs, suggesting that Ded1 plays a larger role than eIF4A in promoting the translation of mRNAs harboring stable 5’UTR structures [
5,
10]. This mRNA-specific role was even more evident when Ded1 was inactivated in a mutant lacking the closely related paralog Dbp1. The profiling of 40S subunits showed that both the attachment of 43S PICs and subsequent scanning to the AUG start codon were preferentially impaired on Ded1-hyperdependent mRNAs in
ded1-cs and
ded1-ts dbp1Δ mutants [
5]. The heightened requirement for Ded1 to stimulate the assembly of 48S PICs on Ded1-hyperdependent mRNAs with structured 5′UTRs was reconstituted in a purified yeast translation initiation system [
11]. Interestingly, the Ded1 stimulation of 48S PIC assembly in this system was enhanced by eIF4F and domains in eIF4G and Ded1 that mediate Ded1-eIF4F association [
11], including Ded1 N-terminal amino acids necessary for its interactions with eIF4A and eIF4E [
12]. These last findings supported previous biochemical evidence that Ded1 unwinding activity on a model substrate is stimulated by eIF4A and eIF4G [
13].
There is evidence that Ded1 can also repress the translation of mRNAs by segregating them into insoluble RNA–protein complexes during stress, including processing bodies (PBs) and stress granules (SGs). Ded1 is a PB component formed in response to glucose starvation (−Glu) or oxidative stress, and the genetic depletion of Ded1 reduces PB formation under such stress conditions while reducing bulk translation in non-stressed cells, whereas the overexpression of Ded1 inhibits cell growth and induces PB formation in non-stressed cells [
14]. Ded1 ATPase activity appears to oppose SG formation, while regions in the Ded1 N-terminal domain (NTD) and C-terminal domain (CTD) contribute to SG formation by overexpressed Ded1. These domains also stimulate translation at native levels of Ded1 expression [
15] and mediate its interaction with eIF4A [
12] or eIF4G [
15]. It was proposed that Ded1 modulates translation by initially forming a complex with eIF4F and mRNA that is stalled in translation initiation upstream of 43S joining and subsequently utilizes ATP hydrolysis to allow for the stalled complex to progress into the initiation pathway. The overexpression of WT Ded1 or the inactivation of its ATPase activity would impede the transition from stalled to translationally productive mRNPs and lead to Ded1 sequestration with the bound mRNAs in SGs [
15].
More recently, Weis et al. reported that purified Ded1 undergoes phase separation into liquid droplets in a manner reversed by the activation of its ATPase activity by a segment of eIF4G [
16]. Furthermore, the expression of the catalytic inactive ded1-DQAD variant leads to constitutive SG granule formation and prolongs the lifetime of SGs formed by glucose starvation on treatment with cycloheximide. These and other findings [
17] suggest that Ded1 is an active participant in SG formation when its ATPase activity is impaired, and it functionally interacts with another DEAD-box helicase Dhh1 required for PB formation in the progression of translationally inactive mRNAs from PBs to SG during glucose starvation [
16].
Heat-shock, in addition to glucose starvation, evokes the rapid sequestering of Ded1 into SGs [
18] that increases with temperature and is correlated with reduced growth [
19]. Condensation appears to be antagonized by a polar segment in the Ded1 NTD predicted to be an intrinsically disordered region (IDR; residues 35–53), which appears to minimize sequestration at low temperatures and promote cell survival at high temperatures, presumably by preventing the excessive sequestration of Ded1 and associated mRNAs in SGs during stress. Purified Ded1 was found to exhibit heat-induced phase separation into gel-like condensates in a manner enhanced by mRNA, which requires the Ded1 CTD and is enhanced at lower temperatures by substituting the N-terminal IDR. Interestingly, heat-shock selectively reduced the TEs of mRNAs that tend to have 5′UTRs with greater than average propensity for structure formation [
19], as was previously shown for the mutational inactivation of Ded1 [
5,
10]. The
DED1-IDRm mutation disfavors the translation of mRNAs with these properties (at least at the high temperature of 42 °C), and it also increases the enrichment of such mRNAs in the insoluble fraction formed in cells. Thus, it was proposed that the sequestration of Ded1 and associated mRNAs in SGs during heat-shock preferentially reduces the translation of mRNAs with structurally complex 5′UTRs that heavily depend on Ded1 unwinding activity for translation [
19]. It was not explicitly shown, however, that the mRNAs whose TEs are reduced during the heat-shock of WT cells, or those preferentially impaired by the
DED1-IDRm mutation during a strong heat-shock of 42 °C, are enriched for mRNAs shown to be Ded1-hyperdependent via the ribosome profiling of
ded1 mutants [
5,
10].
Recent results have indicated that the withdrawal of glucose elicits a rapid loss of binding by Ded1 and initiation factors eIF4A and eIF4B from the translation initiation regions of many mRNAs, without a commensurate dissociation of Ded1 from within mRNA bodies [
20]; these results are consistent with previous findings for eIF4A [
21]. A more gradual decline in mRNA association by the same three proteins was observed in heat-shock, which was more pronounced for Ded1 and accompanied by the dissociation of eIF4G, although mRNA degradation might contribute to the loss of protein–mRNA interactions during heat stress [
20]. These findings seem consistent with the rapid down-regulation of Ded1 function in unwinding 5′UTR structures that reduces initiation rates, which might be accompanied by the sustained association of Ded1 with mRNA-coding sequences within SGs formed on glucose starvation or heat-shock [
19].
Interestingly, the deletion of the Ded1 CTD was reported to enhance cell growth when the TORC1 kinase complex is inhibited by rapamycin, and this growth phenotype, as well as increased bulk translation, was conferred by the elimination of the last 14 residues of Ded1. As these CTD mutations also impaired Ded1 interaction with eIF4G, it was proposed that Ded1 association with eIF4G is instrumental in down-regulating translation upon inhibition of TORC1 [
22]. Other evidence has suggested that the enhanced degradation of eIF4G, shown to be triggered by rapamycin [
23], is mediated by eIF4G’s interaction with Ded1, is dependent on Ded1 helicase activity (presumably to dissociate eIF4G from target mRNAs), and provides an important mechanism for reducing the translation initiation of TORC1 inhibition by rapamycin [
22]. However, it was not determined whether mRNAs translationally impaired by the inhibition of TORC1 exhibit a heightened dependence on eIF4G for their translation in non-stressed cells replete with active TORC1.
We wished to test the model in which the sequestration of Ded1 in RNA granules mediates the down-regulation of Ded1 function and the sequestration of Ded1-hyperdependent mRNAs in insoluble aggregates and, as such, represents an important driver of the reduced translation of mRNAs with heightened dependence on Ded1 during cellular stress. To this end, we interrogated ribosome-profiling data on WT cells subjected to glucose starvation or heat-shock and asked whether the TE reductions in these conditions are substantially enriched for those conferred by inactivating ded1 mutations in non-stressed cells or by the DED1-IDRm allele during heat stress. We also examined whether TE changes conferred by the Rap treatment of WT cells reflects the down-regulation of Ded1 or eIF4G function in response to the reduced activity of TORC1. Our analysis supports the idea that Ded1 function is decreased in glucose-starved and heat-shocked cells, but only a subset of Ded1-hyperdependent mRNAs were found to show marked TE reductions, suggesting contributions from additional factors, including eIF4B and eIF4A, in down-regulating their translation.
4. Discussion
We made use of the ribosome-profiling analyses of
ded1 mutations that impair Ded1 helicase activity [
5,
10] to define a group of mRNAs unusually dependent on Ded1 for translation in order to evaluate whether WT Ded1 function, and thus the translation of these Ded1-hyperdependent mRNAs, is reduced during different stresses. In our previous studies, we examined cold-sensitive or heat-sensitive
ded1 mutants after the shortest incubations at their non-permissive temperatures sufficient to substantially reduce bulk translation in an effort to minimize the indirect effects of impairing Ded1 function. Interrogating recent results from measuring Ded1 binding to yeast mRNAs in vivo by UV crosslinking [
20] revealed that the group of 1566 mRNAs judged to be Ded1-hyperdependent via the ribosome profiling of the
ded1-cs and
ded1-ts mutants exhibited significantly greater Ded1 occupancies in their 5′UTRs compared to all yeast mRNAs that showed detectable binding, whereas most of the corresponding group of 1755 mRNAs judged to be hypodependent on Ded1 by the same criteria (exhibiting increased not decreased relative TEs in
ded1 mutants) showed no detectable Ded1 binding and lower than average occupancies for the small proportion that does bind Ded1 (
Figure S6). These findings further support the idea that Ded1 acts directly on the cohort of Ded1-hyperdependendent mRNAs to stimulate their translation initiation in vivo, which we succeeded in reconstituting for representative hyperdependent mRNAs in a purified system [
11].
By interrogating published ribosome-profiling data obtained for glucose starvation, different regimes of heat-shock, the DED1-IDRm mutation, and the inhibition of TORC1 by rapamycin for the reductions in TE of Ded1-hyperdependent mRNAs, we found evidence consistent with a marked reduction in Ded1 function only for a subset of these conditions, and even for those, the degree of Ded1 impairment appeared to be less than that conferred by the ded1-ts or ded1-cs mutations affecting the Ded1 catalytic domain. Interestingly, for each condition, we observed that only a subset of all Ded1-hyperdependent mRNAs displayed significant TE reductions compared to unstressed control cells. In addition, many mRNAs translationally down-regulated by stress are not hyperdependent on Ded1, suggesting negative regulation of other factors. Indeed, we obtained evidence consistent with the idea that diminished Ded1 function during glucose starvation combines with the inhibition of eIF4B and eIF4A to evoke the marked reductions in translation observed for the particular subset of Ded1-hyperdependent mRNAs whose translation is down-regulated the most in glucose-starved cells.
The
DED1-IDRm mutation confers a modest but significant reduction in the median TE, by ~0.87-fold, for the different groups of Ded1-hyperdependent mRNAs whose translation is impaired by
ded1-cs or
ded1-ts. As summarized in
Table 1, of the 282 mRNAs showing TE reductions in response to
DED1-IDRm at 42 °C, the majority (74%) also showed TE reductions in response to either
ded1-ts or
ded1-cs mutations (
Table 1, row 1, col. 2), which were similar in magnitude to those conferred by
ded1-ts/ded1-cs for all Ded1-hyperdependent mRNAs (
Figure 2D, cols. 1–3). Thus, the TE_down_
IDRm mRNAs are highly Ded1-hyperdependent. On the other hand, these 282 mRNAs comprised ≤25% of the larger groups of mRNAs showing TE reductions in response to
ded1-cs or
ded1-ts mutations, including the 258 mRNAs most heavily dependent on Ded1 (i.e., showing >2-fold TE reductions in both
ded1-cs and
ded1-ts mutants) (
Table 1, row 1, cols. 3–5). Our findings that only a minority of Ded1-hyperdependent mRNAs were impaired by
DED1-IDRm and that
DED1-IDRm conferred a small median TE reduction compared to
ded1-ts and
ded1-cs for the entire group of Ded1-hyperdependent mRNAs (
Figure 2C, cols. 1 and 3) might indicate that
DED1-IDRm only moderately reduces Ded1 function at 42 °C compared to the
ded1-ts and
ded1-cs mutations at their restrictive temperatures. This seems unexpected considering that 80% of Ded1-IDRm were found to be insoluble at 42 °C compared to 50% of WT Ded1 [
19]. Alternatively, the requirement for Ded1 could be diminished at 42 °C (where the
IDRm mutation was examined) compared to the temperatures of 37 °C/15 °C used to inactivate
ded1-ts/ded1-cs, e.g., by changes in mRNA structure or the expression or activities of other initiation factors under heat-shock conditions. An intriguing possibility is that the marked TE reductions observed for the TE_down_
IDRm set of mRNAs reflect their preferential condensation with the Ded1-IDRm variant at 42 °C, thus reducing their proportions in the cytoplasmic pool [
19], combined with the reduction in soluble Ded1-IDRm levels that result from its enhanced condensation. However, this possibility assumes that the mRNAs in Ded1 condensates are translationally repressed, whereas single molecule observations on mammalian cells have indicated that the fractions of reporter mRNAs found sequestered in SGs are translated at only slightly lower rates than the fractions that remains cytoplasmic [
32]. It is also important to note that relatively small fractions of mRNAs are found to be sequestered in SGs in stressed cells [
32,
33,
34], and it is currently unclear what proportions of Ded1-hyperdependent mRNAs become insoluble at 42 °C in cells expressing either WT Ded1 or the Ded1-IDRm variant.
Among the four stress conditions examined for WT cells, 3 h of glucose starvation and acute heat-shock at 42 °C versus 30 °C were found to most closely resemble the
ded1-cs and
ded1-ts mutations in down-regulating the translation of Ded1-hyperdependent mRNAs. Thus, nearly one-half of the mRNAs showing TE reductions on −Glu or HS (42°/30°) were also impaired by either
ded1-ts or
ded1-cs (
Table 1, rows 2 and 5, col. 2) and 21–36% of the 258 most highly Ded1-hyperdependent mRNAs were down-regulated by −Glu or HS (42°/30°) (
Table 1, rows 2 and 5, col. 5), which represent highly significant overlaps among these groups. These findings, together with the significant down-regulation of Ded1 targets by
DED1-IDRm (noted above) and its known enhancement of Ded1 condensation [
19], support the notion that Ded1 function is down-regulated during glucose starvation and heat-shock in a manner that is enhanced by Ded1 condensation. On the other hand, the −Glu and HS (42°/30°) stresses reduce the translation of <20% of the groups of Ded1-hyperdependent mRNAs (
Table 1, rows 2 and 5, cols, 3–5), which might be explained by proposing a smaller reduction in Ded1 function on glucose starvation or heat-shock compared to
ded1-ts/
ded1-ts mutations or by positing other changes evoked by these stresses that reduce the requirement for Ded1 for the robust translation of its target mRNAs. The subset of Ded1-hyperdependent mRNAs showing TE reductions in response to HS (42°/30°) were found to be unusually hyperdependent on Ded1 (
Figure 5, cols. 5–6 vs. 9–10) and thus might have been substantially impaired despite only a moderate reduction in Ded1 function upon heat-shock. However, this explanation would not apply to the Ded1-hyperdependent mRNAs translationally impaired by −Glu, which have shown average Ded1 dependence (
Figure 5, cols. 1–2 vs. 9–10). As suggested above for the
DED1-IDRm mutation, the subset of Ded1-hyperdependent mRNAs translationally impaired by −Glu or HS (42°/30°) might be especially prone to condensation and experience translational repression, at least in part, by exiting the cytoplasmic pool in Ded1 condensates.
An intriguing alternative model to account for the subset of Ded1-hyperdependent mRNAs translationally impaired by −Glu or HS (42°/30°) is that they undergo compound reductions in their stimulation by Ded1, eIF4B, and eIF4A, all of which enhance mRNA recruitment or scanning. eIF4B and eIF4A were found to dissociate en masse from mRNAs following −Glu or heat-shock, in parallel with the selective dissociation of Ded1 from initiation regions of mRNAs [
20]. We found that the subset of Ded1-hyperdependent mRNAs translationally impaired by −Glu showed a heightened dependence on eIF4B and a somewhat greater dependence on eIF4A compared to all Ded1-hyperdependent mRNAs (
Figure 5, col. 3–4 vs. 11–12). Thus, the loss of eIF4B and eIF4A from most mRNAs in −Glu conditions could be expected to preferentially reduce the translation of this subset of Ded1-hyperdependent mRNAs down-regulated in −Glu conditions. This impairment, combined with the dissociation of Ded1 from initiation regions (and possibly its exit from the soluble pool by condensation) could produce additive reductions in TE that exceed those displayed by Ded1-hyperdependent mRNAs with only average dependence on eIF4B and eIF4A (
Figure 6). The subset of Ded1-hyperdependent mRNAs showing TE reductions in HS (42°/30°) showed a greater than average dependence on eIF4A but not eIF4B (
Figure 5, col. 7–8 vs. 11–12); however, as noted above, they were shown to have a heightened dependence on Ded1 itself. For this latter group of mRNAs, therefore, the dissociation of eIF4B, eIF4A, and Ded1 from initiation regions, as well as their condensation with Ded1, may produce additive reductions in TE greater than that experienced by the entire cohort of Ded1-hyperdependent mRNAs.
It is noteworthy that the
ded1-cs and
ded1-ts mutations produced only moderate TE reductions of between 0.74- and 0.9-fold for the entire TE_down_(−Glu) and TE_down_42C_v_30C groups of mRNAs (
Figure 1F, cols. 2–3, and
Figure 3D, cols. 2–3) and that large proportions of these two groups were not Ded1-hyperdependent mRNAs (
Figure 1A,D and
Figure 2A,B). These findings suggest that the reduced translation of many mRNAs under these stress conditions primarily results from the down-regulation of other factors besides Ded1, which likely include eIF4A and eIF4B [
20,
21].
Compared to the effects of the
DED1-IDRm mutation and the −Glu and HS (42°/30°) stresses discussed above, a heat-shock of WT cells at 42° versus 40° translationally impaired a much smaller proportion of Ded1-hyperdependent mRNAs (
Table 1, row 3, cols. 3–5), and less than one-third of the mRNAs translationally impaired by HS (42°/40°) were Ded1-hyperdependent (
Table 1, row 3, col. 2). Moreover, the
ded1-ts and
ded1-cs mutations conferred no reduction in the median TE of the group of mRNAs down-regulated by HS (42°/40°) (
Figure S3D). It is also noteworthy that the
DED1-IDRm mutation at 42 °C and HS (42°/40°) did not confer correlated TE changes for Ded1-hyperdependent mRNAs (
Figure 4A). Moreover, unlike the significant overlap of mRNAs impaired by
DED1-IDRm and HS (42°/30°) (
Figure S5B), there was no significant overlap in the groups of mRNAs showing TE reductions in these two conditions (
Figure S5A). Hence, by all accounts, the TE reductions conferred by heat-shocking WT cells at 42 °C versus 40 °C do not appear to be significantly related to those given by
DED1-IDRm and the
ded1-ts/ded1-cs mutations. While our analyses are consistent with the possibility that enhanced condensation of the Ded1-IDRm variant at 42 °C and heat-shock of WT cells at 42 °C versus 30 °C both inhibit Ded1 function, they do not support the contention that the increased condensation of WT Ded1 at 42 °C versus 40 °C is associated with an appreciable reduction in Ded1 activity [
19].
There is little indication from our analyses that down-regulating TORC1 with the Rap treatment employed by Nedialkova et al. [
29] impairs Ded1 function. Only ~3% of all Ded1-hyperdependent mRNAs exhibited TE reductions on Rap treatment (
Table 1, row 4, cols. 3–5), and the
ded1-cs and
ded1-ts mutations conferred little or no TE reductions for the 147 mRNAs translationally down-regulated by Rap (
Figure S2D, cols. 2–3). Moreover, Rap treatment did not evoke the formation of PBs or SGs [
35,
36], suggesting the absence of Ded1 condensation. It cannot be excluded, however, that a small reduction in Ded1 function on the inhibition of TORC1 synergistically acted with the impairment of another factor to reduce the translation of some of the 46 Ded1-hyperdependent mRNAs that were affected by Rap treatment (
Table 1, row 5, col. 1). eIF4G is an obvious candidate for such a factor in view of evidence that eIF4G stability is reduced by Rap treatment [
23] in a manner involving its interaction with Ded1 [
22]; however, we found that the group of mRNAs translationally impaired by Rap showed no change in relative TE upon the depletion of eIF4G1 in a strain lacking eIF4G2 in the profiling data from Zinshteyn et al. [
31] (
Figure S4B). Further work is required to uncover the molecular basis for the TE reductions conferred by Rap.
In conclusion, the evidence we uncovered here for the reduced translation of subsets of Ded1-hyperdependent mRNAs in the stress conditions of glucose starvation and heat-shock supports proposals that the dissociation of Ded1 from mRNA 5′UTRs [
20] and the condensation of Ded1 and of mRNAs bound to Ded1 under these stress conditions [
19] contribute to the translational repression of mRNAs with heightened Ded1-dependence in stressed cells. It is also possible that covalent modifications of Ded1 occur in stressed cells that lead to reductions in its unwinding activity. However, our results also indicate that only particular subsets of Ded1-hyperdependent mRNAs are strongly repressed under these conditions and support the possibility that such repression may additionally depend on inhibiting the functions of other initiation factors on these mRNAs, notably eIF4B or eIF4A [
20], by a combinatorial mechanism (
Figure 6). Finally, large proportions of mRNAs translationally down-regulated by glucose starvation or heat-shock are not Ded1-hyperdependent mRNAs, implicating the negative regulation of other factors besides Ded1 in their translational repression.