Wobble base-pairing slows in vivo translation elongation in metazoans (original) (raw)

1. Andrew Fire1,2,3
2. 1Department of Genetics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-5324, USA
3. 2Department of Pathology, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-5324, USA

Abstract

In the universal genetic code, most amino acids can be encoded by multiple trinucleotide codons, and the choice among available codons can influence position-specific translation elongation rates. By using sequence-based ribosome profiling, we obtained transcriptome-wide profiles of in vivo ribosome occupancy as a function of codon identity in Caenorhabditis elegans and human cells. Particularly striking in these profiles was a universal trend of higher ribosome occupancy for codons translated via G:U wobble base-pairing compared with synonymous codons that pair with the same tRNA family using G:C base-pairing. These data support a model in which ribosomal translocation is slowed at wobble codon positions.

• ribosome
• footprinting
• codon usage
• translation
• wobble

Footnotes

• ↵3 Corresponding author.
  E-mail afire{at}stanford.edu.

• Article published online ahead of print. Article and publication date are at http://www.rnajournal.org/cgi/doi/10.1261/rna.02890211.

• Received June 22, 2011.

• Accepted August 30, 2011.

• Copyright © 2011 RNA Society

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