The MS2 system has been extensively used to visualize single mRNA molecules in live cells and follow their localization and behavior. In their Letter to the Editor recently published, Garcia and Parker suggest that use of the MS2 system may yield erroneous mRNA localization results due to the accumulation of 3' decay products. Here we cite published works and provide new data which demonstrate that this is not a phenomenon general to endogenously expressed MS2-tagged transcripts, and that some of the results obtained in their study could have arisen from artifacts of gene expression.
Keywords: MS2 aptamer; MS2 coat protein; P-bodies; mRNA decay; mRNA localization.
© 2016 Haimovich et al.; Published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press for the RNA Society.