title: Origins of minigene-dependent growth inhibition in bacterial cells.
abstract: The expression of very short open reading frames in Escherichia coli can lead to the inhibition of translation and an arrest in cell growth. Inhibition occurs because peptidyl-tRNA hydrolase fails to recycle sufficiently rapidly peptidyl-tRNA released from ribosomes at the stop signal in competition with normal termination, causing starvation for essential species of tRNA. Previous studies have shown that the last sense codon, the strength of the Shine-Dalgarno sequence and the nature and context of the stop codon affect the toxicity associated with mini-gene expression. Here, several important parameters are studied as a function of the length of the mini-gene coding sequence. The rate of peptidyl-tRNA drop-off catalysed by translation factors decreases dramatically for peptides longer than a hexamer. The probability that ribosomes recycle without dissociation of the mini-gene mRNA varies strongly with the length of the coding sequence. The peptidyl-tRNA hydrolase rap mutant, unlike the wild-type enzyme, is highly sensitive to the length and sequence of the peptide. Together, these parameters explain the length dependence of mini-gene toxicity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, BMC, Box 596, S-75124 Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Heurgué-Hamard
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Dinçbas
authors.forename: R H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Buckingham
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ehrenberg
mesh_terms: D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D002265:Carboxylic Ester Hydrolases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D002474:Cell-Free System; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D008970:Molecular Weight; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D010443:Peptide Chain Termination, Translational; D012329:RNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D012346:RNA, Transfer, Amino Acyl / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D012045:Regulatory Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D017384:Sequence Deletion; D013379:Substrate Specificity; D013728:Terminator Regions, Genetic
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D012329:RNA, Bacterial; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D012346:RNA, Transfer, Amino Acyl; C019037:tRNA, peptidyl-; D002265:Carboxylic Ester Hydrolases; C019674:aminoacyl-tRNA hydrolase