Evidence map›Paper›PMID 12459250›Full record

ReviewGene2002

Pushing the limits of the scanning mechanism for initiation of translation.

Marilyn Kozak

Open access · greenAbstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Gene, 2002. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 440 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
440citing papers in PubMed
15.6field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

440 citing papers in PubMed, 933 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Review
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Enhancement of Therapeutic mRNA Translation in Cellular Stress Conditions.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026
    Review
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Introducing the EpGEpigenomes · 2025
    Article
  13. Review
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Review
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Review

380 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.

Marilyn KozakDepartment of Biochemistry, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, 675 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA. kozakma@umdnj.edu
Johnson University · US

Funding

TRANSLATIONAL CONTROL MEDIATED BY MRNA STRUCTURER01GM033915 · NIGMS · UNIV OF MED/DENT NJ-R W JOHNSON MED SCH · PI KOZAK, MARILYN S · 1985 to 2002
$685k
NIGMS NIH HHS GM 33915
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Selection of the translational initiation site in most eukaryotic mRNAs appears to occur via a scanning mechanism which predicts that proximity to the 5' end plays a dominant role in identifying the start codon. This "position effect" is seen in cases where a mutation creates an AUG codon upstream from the normal start site and translation shifts to the upstream site. The position effect is evident also in cases where a silent internal AUG codon is activated upon being relocated closer to the 5' end. Two mechanisms for escaping the first-AUG rule--reinitiation and context-dependent leaky scanning--enable downstream AUG codons to be accessed in some mRNAs. Although these mechanisms are not new, many new examples of their use have emerged. Via these escape pathways, the scanning mechanism operates even in extreme cases, such as a plant virus mRNA in which translation initiates from three start sites over a distance of 900 nt. This depends on careful structural arrangements, however, which are rarely present in cellular mRNAs. Understanding the rules for initiation of translation enables understanding of human diseases in which the expression of a critical gene is reduced by mutations that add upstream AUG codons or change the context around the AUG(START) codon. The opposite problem occurs in the case of hereditary thrombocythemia: translational efficiency is increased by mutations that remove or restructure a small upstream open reading frame in thrombopoietin mRNA, and the resulting overproduction of the cytokine causes the disease. This and other examples support the idea that 5' leader sequences are sometimes structured deliberately in a way that constrains scanning in order to prevent harmful overproduction of potent regulatory proteins. The accumulated evidence reveals how the scanning mechanism dictates the pattern of transcription--forcing production of monocistronic mRNAs--and the pattern of translation of eukaryotic cellular and viral genes.

Indexed as

AnimalsCodon, InitiatorHumansModels, GeneticPeptide Chain Initiation, TranslationalProtein BiosynthesisRNA, MessengerThrombopoietinCodon, InitiatorRNA, MessengerThrombopoietin

Identifiers

PMID12459250
PMCPMC7126118
OpenAlexW1982980697

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.