Translational control through ribosome traffic jams and aborted protein synthesis

ABSTRACT: Translational control is a widespread mode of gene regulation in organisms ranging from bacteria to mammals. Computational models posit that translational control of protein expression during elongation is exerted through a traffic jam of multiple ribosomes at ribosome pause sites on mRNAs. Yet neither the in vivo frequency of ribosome traffic jams nor the contribution of such traffic jams to protein expression has been measured in any organism. Here we show that upon starvation for single amino acids in the bacterium Escherichia coli, ribosome traffic jams are pervasive across the transcriptome, but they occur at only a subset of codons cognate to the limiting amino acid, and their severity is determined by the translation efficiency of mRNAs. Surprisingly, a computational model based on

ORGANISM(S): Escherichia coli str. K-12 substr. MG1655

SUBMITTER: Arvind Subramaniam 

PROVIDER: E-GEOD-51052 | biostudies-arrayexpress |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-arrayexpress