Crucial role of leaky initiation of uORF3 in the downregulation of HNT1 by ER stress

eIF2α phosphorylation-mediated translational regulation is crucial for global repression of translation by various stresses, including the unfolded protein response (UPR) in eukaryotes. Although translational control during UPR has not been extensively investigated in S. cerevisiae, Hac1-mediated production of long transcripts containing uORFs was shown to repress the translation of histidine triad nucleotide-binding 1 (HNT1) mRNA. The present study showed that uORF3 is required for HNT1 expression, as well as down-regulating HNT1 translation. Translation initiation by uORF3 is inefficient, with uORF3 having a strong Kozak sequence efficiently repressing the translation of HNT1. We propose that leaky scanning of uORF3 is responsible for the downregulation of HNT1 during UPR.