A snapshot of translation in Mycobacterium tuberculosis during exponential growth and nutrient starvation revealed by ribosome profiling.

ABSTRACT: Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which causes tuberculosis, can undergo prolonged periods of non-replicating persistence in the host. The mechanisms underlying this are not fully understood, but translational regulation is thought to play a role. A large proportion of mRNA transcripts expressed in M. tuberculosis lack canonical bacterial translation initiation signals, but little is known about the implications of this for fine-tuning of translation. Here, we perform ribosome profiling to characterize the translational landscape of M. tuberculosis under conditions of exponential growth and nutrient starvation. Our data reveal robust, widespread translation of non-canonical transcripts and point toward different translation initiation mechanisms compared to canonical Shine-Dalgarno transcripts.

SUBMITTER: Sawyer EB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7856553 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature