title: The role of tRNA as a molecular spring in decoding, accommodation, and peptidyl transfer.
abstract: Translation is the process by which the genetic information contained in mRNA is used to link amino acids in a predetermined sequential order into a polypeptide chain, which then folds into a protein. Transfer RNAs (tRNAs) are the adapter molecules designed to provide the "lookup" from codons to amino acids. Cryo-EM has provided evidence that the ribosome, as a molecular machine, undergoes many structural changes during translation. Recent findings show that the tRNA structure itself undergoes large conformational changes as well, and that the decoding process must be seen as a complex dynamic interplay between tRNA and the ribosome.
authors.affiliation: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Post Office Box 509, Albany, New York 12201-0509, USA. joachim@wadsworth.org
authors.forename: Joachim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Frank
authors.forename: Jayati
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sengupta
authors.forename: Haixiao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Wen
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Mikel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Valle
authors.forename: Andrey
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zavialov
authors.forename: Måns
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ehrenberg
mesh_terms: D020285:Cryoelectron Microscopy; D006160:Guanosine Triphosphate / Q000737:chemistry; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D010441:Peptide Chain Elongation, Translational / Q000502:physiology*; D012343:RNA, Transfer / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D006160:Guanosine Triphosphate; D012343:RNA, Transfer