eIF4E exports proliferation mRNAs

Cells experiencing a nutrient boon take advantage by ramping up translation. One of the translation-boosting factors keeps the good times rolling by moonlighting as an mRNA export factor. On page 415, Culjkovic et al. now show that eIF4E sends a slew of proliferation-inducing transcripts into the cytoplasm, possibly for priority translation.

The moonlighting is nothing new for this translation initiation factor—boosting eIF4E was known to increase the nuclear export of transcripts for cyclin D1 and ornithine decarboxylase. But the authors now find that eIF4E has many nuclear targets, most of which encode proteins that promote survival and cell division. High levels of eIF4E increased the export of these messages and, consequently, levels of their proteins.

In the cytoplasm, eIF4E binds to the m⁷G that...