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Irshad IU, Sharma AK. Understanding the regulation of protein synthesis under stress conditions. Biophys J 2024:S0006-3495(24)00626-X. [PMID: 39277792 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2024.09.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/01/2024] [Revised: 07/31/2024] [Accepted: 09/11/2024] [Indexed: 09/17/2024] Open
Abstract
Protein synthesis regulation primarily occurs at translation initiation, the first step of gene translation. However, the regulation of translation initiation under various conditions is not fully understood. Specifically, the reason why protein production from certain mRNAs remains resistant to stress while others do not show such resilience. Moreover, why is protein production enhanced from a few transcripts under stress conditions, whereas it is decreased in the majority of transcripts? We address them by developing a Monte Carlo simulation model of protein synthesis and ribosome scanning. We find that mRNAs with strong Kozak contexts exhibit minimal reduction in translation initiation rate under stress conditions. Moreover, these transcripts exhibit even greater resilience to stress when the scanning speed of 43S ribosome subunit is slow, albeit at the cost of reduced initiation rate. This implies a trade-off between initiation rate and the ability of mRNA to withstand stress. We also show that mRNAs featuring an upstream ORF can act as a regulatory switch. This switch elevates protein production from the main ORF under stress conditions; however, minimal to no proteins are produced under the normal condition. Because, in stress, a larger fraction of 43S ribosomes bypasses the upstream ORF due to its weak Kozak context. This, in turn, increases the number of scanning ribosomes reaching the main ORF, whose strong Kozak context can convert them into 80S ribosomes, even under stress conditions. This switching allows an efficient use of cellular resources by producing proteins when they are required. Thus, our computational study provides valuable insights into our understanding of stress-responsive translation-initiation.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Ajeet K Sharma
- Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology, Jammu, India; Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Jammu, India.
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2
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Williams TD, Rousseau A. Translation regulation in response to stress. FEBS J 2024. [PMID: 38308808 DOI: 10.1111/febs.17076] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2023] [Revised: 12/07/2023] [Accepted: 01/22/2024] [Indexed: 02/05/2024]
Abstract
Cell stresses occur in a wide variety of settings: in disease, during industrial processes, and as part of normal day-to-day rhythms. Adaptation to these stresses requires cells to alter their proteome. Cells modify the proteins they synthesize to aid proteome adaptation. Changes in both mRNA transcription and translation contribute to altered protein synthesis. Here, we discuss the changes in translational mechanisms that occur following the onset of stress, and the impact these have on stress adaptation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas D Williams
- MRC-PPU, School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee, UK
- Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford, UK
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Bottorff TA, Park H, Geballe AP, Subramaniam AR. Translational buffering by ribosome stalling in upstream open reading frames. PLoS Genet 2022; 18:e1010460. [PMID: 36315596 PMCID: PMC9648851 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1010460] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/07/2022] [Revised: 11/10/2022] [Accepted: 10/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/05/2022] Open
Abstract
Upstream open reading frames (uORFs) are present in over half of all human mRNAs. uORFs can potently regulate the translation of downstream open reading frames through several mechanisms: siphoning away scanning ribosomes, regulating re-initiation, and allowing interactions between scanning and elongating ribosomes. However, the consequences of these different mechanisms for the regulation of protein expression remain incompletely understood. Here, we performed systematic measurements on the uORF-containing 5' UTR of the cytomegaloviral UL4 mRNA to test alternative models of uORF-mediated regulation in human cells. We find that a terminal diproline-dependent elongating ribosome stall in the UL4 uORF prevents decreases in main ORF protein expression when ribosome loading onto the mRNA is reduced. This uORF-mediated buffering is insensitive to the location of the ribosome stall along the uORF. Computational kinetic modeling based on our measurements suggests that scanning ribosomes dissociate rather than queue when they collide with stalled elongating ribosomes within the UL4 uORF. We identify several human uORFs that repress main ORF protein expression via a similar terminal diproline motif. We propose that ribosome stalls in uORFs provide a general mechanism for buffering against reductions in main ORF translation during stress and developmental transitions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ty A. Bottorff
- Basic Sciences Division and Computational Biology Program of the Public Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, Washington, United States of America
- Biological Physics, Structure and Design Graduate Program, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America
| | - Heungwon Park
- Basic Sciences Division and Computational Biology Program of the Public Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, Washington, United States of America
| | - Adam P. Geballe
- Human Biology and Clinical Research Divisions, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, Washington, United States of America
| | - Arvind Rasi Subramaniam
- Basic Sciences Division and Computational Biology Program of the Public Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, Washington, United States of America
- Biological Physics, Structure and Design Graduate Program, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America
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Shallom D, Naiger D, Weiss S, Tuller T. Accelerating Whole-Cell Simulations of mRNA Translation Using a Dedicated Hardware. ACS Synth Biol 2021; 10:3489-3506. [PMID: 34813269 PMCID: PMC8689694 DOI: 10.1021/acssynbio.1c00415] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
In recent years, intracellular biophysical simulations have been used with increasing frequency not only for answering basic scientific questions but also in the field of synthetic biology. However, since these models include networks of interaction between millions of components, they are extremely time-consuming and cannot run easily on parallel computers. In this study, we demonstrate for the first time a novel approach addressing this challenge by using a dedicated hardware designed specifically to simulate such processes. As a proof of concept, we specifically focus on mRNA translation, which is the process consuming most of the energy in the cell. We design a hardware that simulates translation in Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae for thousands of mRNAs and ribosomes, which is in orders of magnitude faster than a similar software solution. With the sharp increase in the amount of genomic data available today and the complexity of the corresponding models inferred from them, we believe that the strategy suggested here will become common and can be used among others for simulating entire cells with all gene expression steps.
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Affiliation(s)
- David Shallom
- School of Electrical Engineering, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
| | - Danny Naiger
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
| | - Shlomo Weiss
- School of Electrical Engineering, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
| | - Tamir Tuller
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
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Probabilistic models of uORF-mediated ATF4 translation control. Math Biosci 2021; 343:108762. [PMID: 34883107 DOI: 10.1016/j.mbs.2021.108762] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2021] [Revised: 10/21/2021] [Accepted: 10/21/2021] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
Abstract
ATF4 is a key transcription factor that activates transcription of genes needed to respond to cellular stress. Although the mRNA encoding ATF4 is present at constant levels in the cell during the initial response, translation of ATF4 increases under conditions of cellular stress while the global translation rate decreases. We study two models for the control system that regulates the translation of ATF4, both based on the Vattem-Wek hypothesis. This hypothesis is based on a race to reload, following the translation of a small upstream open reading frame (uORF), the ternary complex that brings the initiator tRNA to the ribosome as the 40S subunit scans along the mRNA, encountering first a start codon for an inhibitory uORF whose reading frame overlaps the start of the ATF4 coding sequence. We develop a pair of simple, analytic, probabilistic models, one of which assumes all nucleotide triplets have identical kinetic properties, while the other recognizes the existence of triplets at which the ternary complex loads more efficiently. We also consider two different functions representing the dependence of the rate of initiation at uORF1 on the ternary complex concentration. In keeping with the theme of this Special Issue, we studied the properties of these models in a Maple document, which can easily be modified to consider different parameters, translation rate initiation functions, and so on.
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Khan MF, Spurgeon SK, Yan XG, Nofal MM, Al-Hmouz R. Inbuilt Tendency of the eIF2 Regulatory System to Counteract Uncertainties. IEEE Trans Nanobioscience 2020; 20:35-41. [PMID: 32894719 DOI: 10.1109/tnb.2020.3022415] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Abstract
Eukaryotic initiation factor 2 (eIF2) plays a fundamental role in the regulation of protein synthesis. Investigations have revealed that the regulation of eIF2 is robust against intrinsic uncertainties and is able to efficiently counteract them. The robustness properties of the eIF2 pathway against intrinsic disturbances is also well known. However the reasons for this ability to counteract stresses is less well understood. In this article, the robustness conferring properties of the eIF2 dependent regulatory system is explored with the help of a mathematical model. The novelty of the work presented in this article lies in articulating the possible reason behind the inbuilt robustness of the highly engineered eIF2 system against intrinsic perturbations. Our investigations reveal that the robust nature of the eIF2 pathway may originate from the existence of an attractive natural sliding surface within the system satisfying reaching and sliding conditions that are well established in the domain of control engineering.
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The Interaction between the Ribosomal Stalk Proteins and Translation Initiation Factor 5B Promotes Translation Initiation. Mol Cell Biol 2018; 38:MCB.00067-18. [PMID: 29844065 DOI: 10.1128/mcb.00067-18] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2018] [Accepted: 05/14/2018] [Indexed: 01/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Ribosomal stalk proteins recruit translation elongation GTPases to the factor-binding center of the ribosome. Initiation factor 5B (eIF5B in eukaryotes and aIF5B in archaea) is a universally conserved GTPase that promotes the joining of the large and small ribosomal subunits during translation initiation. Here we show that aIF5B binds to the C-terminal tail of the stalk protein. In the cocrystal structure, the interaction occurs between the hydrophobic amino acids of the stalk C-terminal tail and a small hydrophobic pocket on the surface of the GTP-binding domain (domain I) of aIF5B. A substitution mutation altering the hydrophobic pocket of yeast eIF5B resulted in a marked reduction in ribosome-dependent eIF5B GTPase activity in vitro In yeast cells, the eIF5B mutation affected growth and impaired GCN4 expression during amino acid starvation via a defect in start site selection for the first upstream open reading frame in GCN4 mRNA, as observed with the eIF5B deletion mutant. The deletion of two of the four stalk proteins diminished polyribosome levels (indicating defective translation initiation) and starvation-induced GCN4 expression, both of which were suppressible by eIF5B overexpression. Thus, the mutual interaction between a/eIF5B and the ribosomal stalk plays an important role in subunit joining during translation initiation in vivo.
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Heldt FS, Brackley CA, Grebogi C, Thiel M. Community control in cellular protein production: consequences for amino acid starvation. PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. SERIES A, MATHEMATICAL, PHYSICAL, AND ENGINEERING SCIENCES 2015; 373:rsta.2015.0107. [PMID: 26527812 DOI: 10.1098/rsta.2015.0107] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 06/10/2015] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
Abstract
Deprivation of essential nutrients can have stark consequences for many processes in a cell. We consider amino acid starvation, which can result in bottlenecks in mRNA translation when ribosomes stall due to lack of resources, i.e. tRNAs charged with the missing amino acid. Recent experiments also show less obvious effects such as increased charging of other (non-starved) tRNA species and selective charging of isoaccepting tRNAs. We present a mechanism which accounts for these observations and shows that production of some proteins can actually increase under starvation. One might assume that such responses could only be a result of sophisticated control pathways, but here we show that these effects can occur naturally due to changes in the supply and demand for different resources, and that control can be accomplished through selective use of rare codons. We develop a model for translation which includes the dynamics of the charging and use of aminoacylated tRNAs, explicitly taking into account the effect of specific codon sequences. This constitutes a new control mechanism in gene regulation which emerges at the community level, i.e. via resources used by all ribosomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Frank S Heldt
- Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, Universitaetsplatz 2, 39106 Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Chris A Brackley
- SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Mayfield Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JZ, UK
| | - Celso Grebogi
- Institute for Complex Systems and Mathematical Biology, SUPA, King's College, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3UE, UK
| | - Marco Thiel
- Institute for Complex Systems and Mathematical Biology, SUPA, King's College, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3UE, UK
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The translational machinery is an optimized molecular network that affects cellular homoeostasis and disease. Biochem Soc Trans 2014; 42:173-6. [DOI: 10.1042/bst20130131] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/29/2023]
Abstract
Translation involves interactions between mRNAs, ribosomes, tRNAs and a host of translation factors. Emerging evidence on the eukaryotic translational machinery indicates that these factors are organized in a highly optimized network, in which the levels of the different factors are finely matched to each other. This optimal factor network is essential for producing proteomes that result in optimal fitness, and perturbations to the optimal network that significantly affect translational activity therefore result in non-optimal proteomes, fitness losses and disease. On the other hand, experimental evidence indicates that translation and cell growth are relatively robust to perturbations, and viability can be maintained even upon significant damage to individual translation factors. How the eukaryotic translational machinery is optimized, and how it can maintain optimization in the face of changing internal parameters, are open questions relevant to the interaction between translation and cellular disease states.
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Aitken CE, Lorsch JR. A mechanistic overview of translation initiation in eukaryotes. Nat Struct Mol Biol 2012; 19:568-76. [PMID: 22664984 DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.2303] [Citation(s) in RCA: 290] [Impact Index Per Article: 24.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
Translation initiation in eukaryotes is a complex and highly regulated process requiring the action of at least 12 protein factors. The pathway is distinguished by the formation of a pre-initiation complex that recruits the 5' end of the mRNA and scans along it to locate the start codon. During the past decade, a combination of genetics, biochemistry and structural studies has begun to illuminate key molecular events in this critical phase of gene expression. Here, we outline our current understanding of eukaryotic translation initiation and discuss important outstanding challenges.
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Affiliation(s)
- Colin Echeverría Aitken
- Department of Biophysics and Biophysical Chemistry, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
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