Mutants That Affect Recoding

Abstract

Fast, accurate translation is a hallmark of protein synthesis. However, recoding systems subvert the normal decoding mechanisms to redefine codons or shift translation into alternate reading frames. Genetic analyses in yeast and bacteria have enhanced our understanding of non-standard decoding and of normal decoding processes. Recent crystallographic efforts have provided unprecedented insights into the mechanisms underlying translation and the selection of cognate tRNAs. Ribosomal components and factors involved in decoding have also been identified genetically, through selections for mutants that alter the fidelity of protein synthesis, or impact upon various recoding phenomena. The availability of high-resolution structures of ribosomal complexes together with advances in biochemistry now allow the effects of many of these mutant components to be explained in molecular terms.