In many diseases caused by repeat expansion mutations in the DNA, harmful proteins containing repetitive stretches are found to build up in the brain. The repeat expansion mutation, when translated into a protein, results in an abnormally expanded repeat tract that can affect the function of the protein and have harmful consequences for the cells. Following a study published in 2011, we know that repeat expansion mutations can make additional harmful repeat-containing proteins by a process called Repeat Associated Non-AUG translation or RAN translation.

How are proteins made?

To get from DNA to protein, there are two main steps. The first step involves the conversion of a gene in the DNA into an instructional file called messenger RNA (mRNA). The second step is translation, this is where the cellular machinery responsible for making proteins uses mRNA as a template to make the protein encoded by the gene.

During translation mRNA is “read” in sets of three bases. Each set of three bases is called a codon and each codon codes for one amino acid. There is a specific codon that signals where to start making the protein, this codon is AUG. From the point where the cellular machinery “reads” the start codon, the mRNA is “read” one codon at a time and the matching amino acid is added onto the growing protein.

What happens when there is a repeat expansion mutation?

As the name suggests, Repeat Associated Non-AUG (RAN) translation is a protein translation mechanism that happens without a start codon. RAN translation occurs when the mRNA contains a repeat expansion that causes the mRNA to fold into RAN-promoting secondary structures. Because RAN translation starts without an AUG start codon, the mRNA can be “read” in different ways.

Let’s consider a CAG repeat expansion to illustrate this process. In the CAG “reading frame” a polyglutamine containing protein would be made because the codon CAG leads to incorporation of the amino acid glutamine. But a CAG repeat expansion could also be “read” as an AGC or a GCA repeat expansion if you don’t know where in the sequence to start “reading”. When “read” as AGC, the cellular machinery would incorporate the amino acid serine, making a polyserine repeat protein. In the GCA frame a polyalanine repeat protein would be made. This has been shown to happen in Huntington’s disease (HD). In HD, RAN-translated polyserine and polyalanine proteins accumulate in HD patients’ brains, along with the AUG-initiated mutant huntingtin protein containing a polyglutamine expansion.

To complicate matters more, RAN translation can happen from different repeat expansions, including those in regions of the DNA that aren’t normally made into proteins at all. Through the process of RAN translation, repeat expansion mutations in the DNA can give rise to multiple different proteins that aren’t made in healthy individuals. RAN proteins have now been identified in several neurodegenerative diseases where they have been shown to be toxic to cells, including in HD, spinocerebellar ataxia type 8, myotonic dystrophy type 1 and 2, and C9orf72 amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

To learn more about the implications of RAN proteins for repeat expansion diseases see this article by Stanford Medicine News Center.

To learn more about the process of translation see this article by Nature.

https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/translation-dna-to-mrna-to-protein-393/

For the original article describing RAN translation see this article by PNAS, and this article by Neuron about RAN translated proteins in Huntington’s disease.

Snapshot written by Dr. Hannah Shorrock and edited by Dr. Mónica Bañez-Coronel.