The process of mRNA–tRNA translocation
- *Howard Hughes Medical Institute and
- †Health Research Incorporated, Wadsworth Center, Empire State Plaza, Albany, NY 12201-0509; and
- ‡Department of Biomedical Sciences, State University of New York, Albany, NY 12222
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Contributed by Joachim Frank, September 13, 2007 (received for review August 6, 2007)
Abstract
In the elongation cycle of translation, translocation is the process that advances the mRNA–tRNA moiety on the ribosome, to allow the next codon to move into the decoding center. New results obtained by cryoelectron microscopy, interpreted in the light of x-ray structures and kinetic data, allow us to develop a model of the molecular events during translocation.
Footnotes
- §To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: joachim{at}wadsworth.org
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This contribution is part of the special series of Inaugural Articles by members of the National Academy of Sciences elected on April 25, 2006.
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Author contributions: D.J.T. designed the animation depicting the proposed mechanism of translocation; H.G. performed real-space refinement fitting for the two conformations of the ribosome; and J.F., H.G., J.S., N.G., and D.J.T. wrote the paper.
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The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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See accompanying Profile on page 19668.
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This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/0708517104/DC1.
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↵ ¶ Cornish, P. V., Ermolenko, D., Noller, H. F., Ha, T., Ribosomes Meeting, June 3–8, 2007, Cape Cod, MA, p. 69 (abstr.).
- © 2007 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA
