核糖体谱技术及其应用

当前,基因组范围内分析细胞内蛋白质翻译事件的研究仍然落后于转录事件的研究.无论原核生物还是真核生物,细胞内的核糖体均是蛋白质翻译的工厂,因此对于核糖体的研究至关重要.早在1963年,Warner等[1]发现了细胞内的多聚核糖体结构.Wolin和Walter[2]用RNase消化正在翻译中     

Translation inhibitors cause abnormalities in ribosome profiling experiments

Ribosome profiling and high-throughput sequencing provide unprecedented opportunities for the analysis of mRNA translation. Using this novel method, several studies have demonstrated the widespread role of short upstream reading frames in translational control as well as slower elongation at the beginning of open reading frames in response to stress. Based on the initial studies, the importance of adding or omitting translation inhibitors, such as cycloheximide, was noted as it markedly affected ribosome coverage profiles. For that reason, many recent studies omitted translation inhibitors in the culture medium. Here, we investigate the influence of ranging cycloheximide concentrations on ribosome profiles in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and demonstrate that increasing the drug concentration can overcome some of the artifacts. We subjected cells to various manipulations and show that neither oxidative stress nor heat shock nor amino acid starvation affect translation elongation. Instead, the observations in the initial studies are the result of cycloheximide-inflicted artifacts. Likewise, we find little support for short upstream reading frames to be involved in widespread protein synthesis regulation under stress conditions. Our study highlights the need for better standardization of ribosome profiling methods.     

核糖体图谱技术在植物学研究中的应用

随着高通量测序技术的持续发展和进步,开发出很多新颖的测序技术,为诸多悬而未决的生物学难题提供了解决方案。其中,核糖体图谱技术能够在全基因组水平和单核苷酸分辨率上监控细胞内的翻译事件,填补了转录组学和蛋白质组学研究之间的空隙。核糖体图谱技术不仅能够鉴定处于翻译状态的RNA分子,还能够精确定位RNA分子上正在翻译的核苷酸,进而准确描绘RNA分子上的开放阅读框。此外,结合转录组测序数据,核糖体图谱技术还可以确定每个转录本上的核糖体数量,从而计算每个转录本的翻译效率。目前,核糖体图谱技术已成功应用于动物、植物和微生物等研究领域,加深了人们对翻译调控机制的认识。然而,由于植物细胞和组织的特性,核糖体图谱技术在植物学研究中的应用仍然存在局限。该文综述了核糖体图谱技术的实验原理,以及在植物学研究中的相关进展。     

Modified ribosome profiling reveals high abundance of ribosome protected mRNA fragments derived from 3′ untranslated regions

Ribosome profiling identifies ribosome positions on translated mRNAs. A prominent feature of published datasets is the near complete absence of ribosomes in 3′ untranslated regions (3′UTR) although substantial ribosome density can be observed on non-coding RNAs. Here we perform ribosome profiling in cultured Drosophila and human cells and show that different features of translation are revealed depending on the nuclease and the digestion conditions used. Most importantly, we observe high abundance of ribosome protected fragments in 3′UTRs of thousands of genes without manipulation of translation termination. Affinity purification of ribosomes indicates that the 3′UTR reads originate from ribosome protected fragments. Association of ribosomes with the 3′UTR may be due to ribosome migration through the stop codon or 3′UTR mRNA binding to ribosomes on the coding sequence. This association depends primarily on the relative length of the 3′UTR and may be related to translational regulation or ribosome recycling, for which the efficiency is known to inversely correlate with 3′UTR length. Together our results indicate that ribosome profiling is highly dependent on digestion conditions and that ribosomes commonly associate with the 3′UTR, which may have a role in translational regulation.     

Non-stop mRNA decay initiates at the ribosome

The translation machinery deciphers genetic information encoded within mRNAs to synthesize proteins needed for various cellular functions. Defective mRNAs that lack in-frame stop codons trigger non-productive stalling of ribosomes. We investigated how cells deal with such defective mRNAs, and present evidence to demonstrate that RNase R, a processive 3'-to-5' exoribonuclease, is recruited to stalled ribosomes for the specific task of degrading defective mRNAs. The recruitment process is selective for non-stop mRNAs and is dependent on the activities of SmpB protein and tmRNA. Most intriguingly, our analysis reveals that a unique structural feature of RNase R, the C-terminal lysine-rich (K-rich) domain, is required both for productive ribosome engagement and targeted non-stop mRNA decay activities of the enzyme. These findings provide new insights into how a general RNase is recruited to the translation machinery and highlight a novel role for the ribosome as a platform for initiating non-stop mRNA decay.     

Cryo-EM structure of the archaeal 50S ribosomal subunit in complex with initiation factor 6 and implications for ribosome evolution

Translation of mRNA into proteins by the ribosome is universally conserved in all cellular life. The composition and complexity of the translation machinery differ markedly between the three domains of life. Organisms from the domain Archaea show an intermediate level of complexity, sharing several additional components of the translation machinery with eukaryotes that are absent in bacteria. One of these translation factors is initiation factor 6 (IF6), which associates with the large ribosomal subunit. We have reconstructed the 50S ribosomal subunit from the archaeon Methanothermobacter thermautotrophicus in complex with archaeal IF6 at 6.6?? resolution using cryo-electron microscopy (EM). The structure provides detailed architectural insights into the 50S ribosomal subunit from a methanogenic archaeon through identification of the rRNA expansion segments and ribosomal proteins that are shared between this archaeal ribosome and eukaryotic ribosomes but are mostly absent in bacteria and in some archaeal lineages. Furthermore, the structure reveals that, in spite of highly divergent evolutionary trajectories of the ribosomal particle and the acquisition of novel functions of IF6 in eukaryotes, the molecular binding of IF6 on the ribosome is conserved between eukaryotes and archaea. The structure also provides a snapshot of the reductive evolution of the archaeal ribosome and offers new insights into the evolution of the translation system in archaea.     

Ribosome profiling reveals sequence-independent post-initiation pausing as a signature of translation

The journey of a newly synthesized polypeptide starts in the peptidyltransferase center of the ribosome, from where it traverses the exit tunnel. The interior of the ribosome exit tunnel is neither straight nor smooth. How the ribosome dynamics in vivo is influenced by the exit tunnel is poorly understood. Genome-wide ribosome profiling in mammalian cells reveals elevated ribosome density at the start codon and surprisingly the downstream 5th codon position as well. We found that the highly focused ribosomal pausing shortly after initiation is attributed to the geometry of the exit tunnel, as deletion of the loop region from ribosome protein L4 diminishes translational pausing at the 5th codon position. Unexpectedly, the ribosome variant undergoes translational abandonment shortly after initiation, suggesting that there exists an obligatory step between initiation and elongation commitment. We propose that the post-initiation pausing of ribosomes represents an inherent signature of the translation machinery to ensure productive translation.     

DAP5 associates with eIF2β and eIF4AI to promote Internal Ribosome Entry Site driven translation

Initiation is a highly regulated rate-limiting step of mRNA translation. During cap-dependent translation, the cap-binding protein eIF4E recruits the mRNA to the ribosome. Specific elements in the 5′UTR of some mRNAs referred to as Internal Ribosome Entry Sites (IRESes) allow direct association of the mRNA with the ribosome without the requirement for eIF4E. Cap-independent initiation permits translation of a subset of cellular and viral mRNAs under conditions wherein cap-dependent translation is inhibited, such as stress, mitosis and viral infection. DAP5 is an eIF4G homolog that has been proposed to regulate both cap-dependent and cap-independent translation. Herein, we demonstrate that DAP5 associates with eIF2β and eIF4AI to stimulate IRES-dependent translation of cellular mRNAs. In contrast, DAP5 is dispensable for cap-dependent translation. These findings provide the first mechanistic insights into the function of DAP5 as a selective regulator of cap-independent translation.     

Switch from Cap- to Factorless IRES-Dependent 0 and +1 Frame Translation during Cellular Stress and Dicistrovirus Infection

Internal ribosome entry sites (IRES) are utilized by a subset of cellular and viral mRNAs to initiate translation during cellular stress and virus infection when canonical cap-dependent translation is compromised. The intergenic region (IGR) IRES of the Dicistroviridae uses a streamlined mechanism in which it can directly recruit the ribosome in the absence of initiation factors and initiates translation using a non-AUG codon. A subset of IGR IRESs including that from the honey bee viruses can also direct translation of an overlapping +1 frame gene. In this study, we systematically examined cellular conditions that lead to IGR IRES-mediated 0 and +1 frame translation in Drosophila S2 cells. Towards this, a novel bicistronic reporter that exploits the 2A “stop-go” peptide was developed to allow the detection of IRES-mediated translation in vivo. Both 0 and +1 frame translation by the IGR IRES are stimulated under a number of cellular stresses and in S2 cells infected by cricket paralysis virus, demonstrating a switch from cap-dependent to IRES-dependent translation. The regulation of the IGR IRES mechanism ensures that both 0 frame viral structural proteins and +1 frame ORFx protein are optimally expressed during virus infection.     

Cap-independent polysomal association of natural mRNAs encoding c-myc, BiP, and eIF4G conferred by internal ribosome entry sites.

Sequence elements that can function as internal ribosome entry sites (IRES) have been identified in 5' noncoding regions of certain uncapped viral and capped cellular mRNA molecules. However, it has remained largely unknown whether IRES elements are functional when located in their natural capped mRNAs. Therefore, the polysomal association and translation of several IRES-containing cellular mRNAs was tested under conditions that severely inhibited cap-dependent translation, that is, after infection with poliovirus. It was found that several known IRES-containing mRNAs, such as BiP and c-myc, were both associated with the translation apparatus and translated in infected cells when cap-dependent translation of most host-cell mRNAs was blocked, indicating that the IRES elements were functional in their natural mRNAs. Curiously, the mRNAs that encode eukaryotic initiation factor 4GI (eIF4GI) and 4GII (eIF4GII), two proteins with high identity and similar functions in the initiation of cap-dependent translation, were both associated with polysomes in infected cells. The 5'-end sequences of eIF4GI mRNA were isolated from a cDNA expression library and shown to function as an internal ribosome entry site when placed into a dicistronic mRNA. These findings suggest that eIF4G proteins can be synthesized at times when 5' cap-dependent mRNA translation is blocked, supporting the notion that eIF4G proteins are needed in both 5' cap-independent and 5' cap-dependent translational initiation mechanisms.