1. A possible universal role for mRNA secondary structure in bacterial translation revealed using a synthetic operon.
- Author
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Chemla Y, Peeri M, Heltberg ML, Eichler J, Jensen MH, Tuller T, and Alfonta L
- Subjects
- Bacteria classification, Bacteria genetics, Codon, Terminator metabolism, Escherichia coli metabolism, Genes, Bacterial genetics, Peptide Chain Initiation, Translational, Protein Structure, Secondary, RNA, Messenger genetics, Ribosomes metabolism, Bacteria metabolism, Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial, Operon genetics, RNA, Messenger chemistry, RNA, Messenger physiology
- Abstract
In bacteria, translation re-initiation is crucial for synthesizing proteins encoded by genes that are organized into operons. The mechanisms regulating translation re-initiation remain, however, poorly understood. We now describe the ribosome termination structure (RTS), a conserved and stable mRNA secondary structure localized immediately downstream of stop codons, and provide experimental evidence for its role in governing re-initiation efficiency in a synthetic Escherichia coli operon. We further report that RTSs are abundant, being associated with 18%-65% of genes in 128 analyzed bacterial genomes representing all phyla, and are selectively depleted when translation re-initiation is advantageous yet selectively enriched so as to insulate translation when re-initiation is deleterious. Our results support a potentially universal role for the RTS in controlling translation termination-insulation and re-initiation across bacteria.
- Published
- 2020
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