A splicer that represses (translation)

Abstract

Regulated translation and subcellular localization of maternal mRNAs underlies establishment of the antero-posterior axis in the Drosophila oocyte. In this issue of Genes & Development, Besse et al. (pp. 195-207) show that a molecule better known as a regulator of alternative splicing in the nucleus, polypyrimidine tract-binding protein (PTB), is required for repression of oskar mRNA in the cytoplasm. Their work suggests that PTB need not engage oskar mRNA in the nucleus for efficient repression, providing an important counterexample to the increasingly popular idea that cytoplasmic regulation initiates in the nucleus. © 2009 by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.