Emerging Themes in Regulation of Global mRNA Turnover in cis

mRNA is the molecule that conveys genetic information from DNA to the translation apparatus. mRNAs in all organisms display a wide range of stability, and mechanisms have evolved to selectively and differentially regulate individual mRNA stability in response to intracellular and extracellular cues. In recent years, three seemingly distinct aspects of RNA biology–mRNA N 6 -methyladenosine (m6A) modification, alternative 3′ end processing and polyadenylation (APA), and mRNA codon usage–have been linked to mRNA turnover, and all three aspects function to regulate global mRNA stability in cis . Here, we discuss the discovery and molecular dissection of these mechanisms in relation to how they impact the intrinsic decay rate of mRNA in eukaryotes, leading to transcriptome reprogramming.