Haloferax volcanii, a prokaryotic species that does not use the Shine Dalgarno mechanism for translation initiation at 5'-UTRs.

ABSTRACT: It was long assumed that translation initiation in prokaryotes generally occurs via the so-called Shine Dalgarno (SD) mechanism. Recently, it became clear that translation initiation in prokaryotes is more heterogeneous. In the haloarchaeon Haloferax volcanii, the majority of transcripts is leaderless and most transcripts with a 5'-UTR lack a SD motif. Nevertheless, a bioinformatic analysis predicted that 20-30% of all genes are preceded by a SD motif in haloarchaea. To analyze the importance of the SD mechanism for translation initiation in haloarchaea experimentally the monocistronic sod gene was chosen, which contains a 5'-UTR with an extensive SD motif of seven nucleotides and a length of 19 nt, the average length of 5'UTRs in this organism. A translational fusion of part of the sod ge

SUBMITTER: Kramer P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3986360 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature