The protein translation machinery is expressed for maximal efficiency in Escherichia coli.

ABSTRACT: Protein synthesis is the most expensive process in fast-growing bacteria. Experimentally observed growth rate dependencies of the translation machinery form the basis of powerful phenomenological growth laws; however, a quantitative theory on the basis of biochemical and biophysical constraints is lacking. Here, we show that the growth rate-dependence of the concentrations of ribosomes, tRNAs, mRNA, and elongation factors observed in Escherichia coli can be predicted accurately from a minimization of cellular costs in a mechanistic model of protein translation. The model is constrained only by the physicochemical properties of the molecules and has no adjustable parameters. The costs of individual components (made of protein and RNA parts) can be approximated through molecular masses, whic

SUBMITTER: Hu XP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7568582 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature