A functional involvement of ABCE1, eukaryotic ribosome recycling factor, in nonstop mRNA decay in Drosophila melanogaster cells.

When ribosomes encounter mRNAs lacking stop codons, two quality-control machineries, NSD for nonstop mRNA decay and ribosome quality control (RQC) for co-translational degradation of the nonstop protein by the proteasome, are triggered to eliminate aberrant molecules. In yeast, it is known that Dom34 (a homolog of eRF1) and Ltn1 (an E3 ubiquitin ligase) play crucial roles in NSD and RQC, respectively, by triggering ribosome rescue at the 3' end of nonstop mRNAs and proteasome-dependent polypeptide degradation. Here we confirmed the essential role of Ltn1 in RQC for nonstop products in Drosophila cells, and further uncovered a functional role of ABCE1, a eukaryotic ribosome recycling factor, in NSD in Drosophila cells.