Fig. 2
From: Stress responses of plants through transcriptome plasticity by mRNA alternative polyadenylation
A general model for transacting factors mediated stress responses through APA dynamics. Black lines represent gene sequences, thicker grey lines represent exons, red arrows point to poly(A) sites, “AAA…” represent the poly(A) tail. Poly(A) site switching to noncanonical regions, like at intronic or protein coding sequences (CDS) region, will alter the mRNA variants and produce a smaller truncated protein different from that of the full-length mRNA product. Proximal and distal poly(A) site switching within 3’UTR would shape the 3’ end profile without altering the protein sequences, but it is highly related to mRNA stability and/or gene expression level potentially through miRNA or stability factors. In some cases, transcription by-passing the normal poly(A) site may result in “read-through” into the next gene, which could cause gene silencing effect of the next gene. The impacts of APA on transcripts and gene expression are listed on the right, but not all consequences are applicable to all transcripts. The fate of individual kind of transcripts are circumstantially influenced by different factors