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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Sep 1.
Published in final edited form as: Biochim Biophys Acta. 2011 Dec 7;1819(9-10):1035–1054. doi: 10.1016/j.bbagrm.2011.11.009

Figure 10.

Figure 10

Model for the termination and ribosome recycling phases of mitochondrial protein synthesis. As the termination codon (UAG here) enters the A-site of the ribosome, mtRF1a and GTP bind to the A-site (Step 1) and promote GTP-dependent hydrolysis and release of the polypeptide chain (Step 2). How mtRF1a is released from the ribosome is not known. RRF1mt binds to the A-site of the ribosome (Step 3) and is joined by RRF2mt (also termed EF-G2mt). These factors promote the dissociation of the ribosomal subunits and release of the deacylated tRNA and the mRNA (Step 4). Following release of RRF1mt and RRF2mt (Step 5), the ribosome begins another round of protein synthesis.