A Poly(A) Tail-Responsive In Vitro System for Cap- or IRES-Driven Translation From HeLa Cells

In cells, the poly(A) tail stimulates translation from messenger RNAs bearing a cap structure or viral IRES elements. This 3′ end-mediated stimulation of translation is not reflected in commonly used commercial cell-free translation systems prepared from rabbit reticulocytes or wheat germ. We describe a simple procedure to generate poly(A) tail-responsive translation extracts from HeLa cells. We suggest that this procedure should be adaptable to many animal cell lines.