Effect of steric bulk and potential RNA dimerization on translation. (A) Luciferase signal from reporter without and with the target hairpin in the 5′-UTR upon expression of MCP-D variants with similar or different RNA-binding domains (homo- and heterodimers, respectively). NanoLuc luminescence was normalized to firefly luciferase signal and plotted relative to signal in the presence of the NB variant. Protein-encoding plasmids were transfected at 15 ng/well. Means ± SEMs of biological triplicates are shown. (*), (**), and (***) P-values < 0.05, 0.01, and 0.001, respectively; Student's t-test. Complete data set presented in Supplemental Figures S1 and S2. (B) Relative reporter mRNA levels upon expression of MCP-D variants normalized to expression in the presence of NB MCP-M. Protein-encoding plasmids were transfected at 15 ng/well. Means ± SEM of biological duplicates, two technical measurements each, are shown.
