Search for translation arrest peptides encoded upstream of genes for components of protein localization pathways

Regulatory nascent peptides participate in the regulation of cellular functions by the mechanisms involving regulated translation arrest. A class of them in bacteria, called monitoring substrates, feedback-regulates the expression of a specific component of protein localization machinery. Three monitoring substrates, SecM, MifM and VemP have previously been identified. Here, we attempt at identifying additional arrest peptides in bacteria. Our bioinformatic searches over more than 400 bacterial genomic sequences for proteins that have the common characteristic features shared by the known monitoring substrates and subsequent in vitro and in vivo characterization of the highlighted sequences allowed the identification of three arrest peptides termed ApcA, ApdA and ApdP. ApcA and ApdA homologs are conserved among a subset of actinobacteria, whereas ApdP has homologs in a subset of α-proteobacteria. We demonstrate that these arrest peptides, in their ribosome-tethered nascent states, inhibit peptidyl transfer. The elongation arrest occurs at a specific codon near the 3′ end of the coding region, in a manner depending on the amino acid sequence of the nascent chain. Interestingly, the arrest sequences of ApcA, ApdA and ApdP share a sequence R-A-P-G/P that is essential for the elongation arrest.