TY - JOUR
T1 - A possible universal role for mRNA secondary structure in bacterial translation revealed using a synthetic operon
AU - Chemla, Yonatan
AU - Peeri, Michael
AU - Heltberg, Mathias Luidor
AU - Eichler, Jerry
AU - Jensen, Mogens Høgh
AU - Tuller, Tamir
AU - Alfonta, Lital
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2020, The Author(s).
PY - 2020/12/1
Y1 - 2020/12/1
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85091466739&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18577-4
DO - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18577-4
M3 - Article
C2 - 32973167
SN - 2041-1723
VL - 11
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
IS - 1
M1 - 4827
ER -