Diverse molecular mechanisms of translation initiation in prokaryotes

More than 30 years ago Shine and Dalgarno proposed a classic model of prokaryotic translation initiation, based on the central role of the mRNA-16S rRNA interactions. Since then basic research has greatly extended the view of this process, owing to rapid progress in experimental techniques and genome sequencing. This review focuses on bioinformatic data and experimental results obtained in vitro and in vivo, demonstrating the diversity of molecular mechanisms for ribosome recruitment in prokaryotes.