Untranslated regions of brain-derived neurotrophic factor mRNA control its translatability and subcellular localization

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) promotes neuronal survival and growth during development. In the adult nervous system, BDNF is important for synaptic function in several biological processes such as memory formation and food intake. In addition, BDNF has been implicated in development and maintenance of the cardiovascular system. The Bdnf gene comprises several alternative untranslated 5′ exons and two variants of 3′ UTRs. The effects of these entire alternative UTRs on translatability have not been established. Using reporter and translating ribosome affinity purification analyses, we show that prevalent Bdnf 5′ UTRs, but not 3′ UTRs, exert a repressive effect on translation. However, contrary to previous reports, we do not detect a significant effect of neuronal activity on BDNF translation. In vivo analysis via knock-in conditional replacement of Bdnf 3′ UTR by bovine growth hormone 3′ UTR reveals that Bdnf 3′ UTR is required for efficient Bdnf mRNA and BDNF protein production in the brain, but acts in an inhibitory manner in lung and heart. Finally, we show that Bdnf mRNA is enriched in rat brain synaptoneurosomes, with higher enrichment detected for exon I–containing transcripts. In conclusion, these results uncover two novel aspects in understanding the function of Bdnf UTRs. First, the long Bdnf 3′ UTR does not repress BDNF expression in the brain. Second, exon I–derived 5′ UTR has a distinct role in subcellular targeting of Bdnf mRNA.