New pre-print by Laura on eIF4E1b

New pre-print by Laura on eIF4E1b

11 Jun 2023

We’ve shown before how ribosomes are kept dormant in the egg, but what about all the mRNAs that need to be stored as well? In a new pre-print from the lab, Laura, teaming up with Marcus and other current and former people from the lab (Beni, Frieda, Carina) as well as our Mass-spec facility (Michi Schutzbier and Gerhard Duernberg), reveals a special role for the non-canonical cap-binding protein eIF4E1b during oogenesis in zebrafish. Similar to canonical eIF4Es, eIF4E1b binds to the mRNA cap and thus prevents decapping, yet it does not interact with the translation promoting factor eIF4G. This function of eIF4e1b is required for oogenesis in zebrafish since fish lacking eIF4e1b do not develop into females but instead revert to fertile males. Big congratulations particularly to Laura for this important work!