UPF1

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UPF1 is a human protein made from the UPF1 gene on chromosome 19. It is involved in quality control for messenger RNA (mRNA) after splicing, helping to export mRNA from the nucleus and to monitor its integrity.

UPF1 is an RNA helicase and ATPase, meaning it uses energy from ATP to unwind RNA. It works with Upf2 (the yeast Upf2p homolog) to trigger nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD), a process that destroys mRNAs if they contain premature stop codons. This prevents the production of faulty proteins.

The protein is located in both the cytoplasm and the nucleus and can initiate mRNA decapping and decay when translation ends upstream of the final exon-exon junction. UPF1 transcripts themselves can use multiple polyadenylation sites.

In short, UPF1 helps ensure that only properly formed mRNAs are used to make proteins, by guiding the export, surveillance, and decay of mRNA.