Pentatricopeptide repeat poly(A) binding protein KPAF4 stabilizes mitochondrial mRNAs in Trypanosoma brucei

Abstract

Polyadenylation stabilizes edited mitochondrial mRNAs in Trypanosoma brucei, but the involved poly(A) binding protein is unknown. Here, Mesitov et al. show that a pentatricopeptide repeat factor KPAF4 binds to A-tail and prevents exonucleolytic degradation as well as translation of incompletely edited mRNAs.