Nonsense-mediated decay

Patent Pending Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) is a surveillance pathway that exists in all eukaryotes. Its main function is to reduce errors in gene expression by eliminating mRNA transcripts that contain premature stop codons.[1] If these aberrant mRNA transcripts were translated, the result would be deleterious gain-of-function or dominant-negative activity of the resulting proteins.[2] While many of the proteins involved in NMD are not conserved between species, there are three main factors in NMD: UPF1, UPF2 and UPF3 (UPF3A and UPF3B in humans), that make up the conserved core of the NMD pathway.