Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay factors target short poly(A)-tailed mRNAs lacking a premature termination codon
Gwenael Badis
Nature Communications, Published online: 17 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s41467-026-72132-1 Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) affects mRNAs with premature termination codons (PTC). Using Direct RNA sequencing, the authors identified thousands of short poly(A)-tailed transcripts specifically bound and destabilized by the NMD machinery and representing a new class of targets.