The No-go decay system degrades plant mRNAs that contain a long A-stretch in the coding region

•No-go decay (NGD) RNA quality control system functions in plants.•NGD cleaves plant mRNAs if a long A-stretch is present in the coding region.•Plant NGD functions gradually, longer A-stretch leads to more efficient decay.•The 5′ products of NGD are degraded in a Pelota-, HBS1- and SKI2-dependent manner.•Arabidopsis Pelota1 is required for NGD, while Pelota2 is a suppressor of NGD.