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Figure 3 | BMC Genetics

Figure 3

From: Carriers of a novel frame-shift insertion in WNT16a possess elevatedpancreatic expression of TCF7L2

Figure 3

The human Wnt16 gene includes two alternativetranscription start sites, resulting in two alternative first exonsand three common exons. The Wnt16a message, which is onlyexpressed in pancreas, includes an upstream open reading frame (uORF)that initiates 14 bp 5′ of the coding sequence AUG. As shown,in the Wnt16a wild-type allele, translation of the 5′ UTRwould terminate 140 base pairs later, presumably resulting innonsense-mediated decay, since two down-stream exon junction complexeswould not be disrupted during the pioneer round of translation. The 4base-pair CCCA insertion of the mutated Wnt16a message, on the otherhand, results in the transition of the uORF to an in-frame alternativetranslation initiation site. Translation initiation from either AUGduring the pioneer round of translation would not triggernonsense-mediated decay of the Wnt16a massage.

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