The sound of silence: human beta-defensin-1 gene untranslated SNPs change the predicted mRNA secondary structure in a length-dependent manner.

This study investigated how 5'-UTR of DEFB1 gene (encoding for the human beta-defensin-1) affects mRNA secondary structure and its correlation with translation efficiency in the susceptibility of diseases. It was possible to determine DEFB1 mRNA folding under the influence of 5'-UTR SNPs haplotypes and putative alternative transcript lengths. Different DEFB1 mRNAs that fold in a pattern that is haplotype and length-dependent are potentially able to drive changes in peptide expression dynamics.