Proximity of AUG sequences to initiation codon in genomic 5′ UTR regulates mammalian protein expression

New mutations were generated at different locations within the promoter region of ATG16L2 gene and added to a plasmid construct containing a luciferase gene reporter gene. The results show a clear relationship between the distance of the novel AUGs from initiation codon and protein expression. The inhibitory effect was even stronger when multiple AUG sequences were present in 5′ UTR.