Skip to main content
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1992 Sep 15;89(18):8636–8640. doi: 10.1073/pnas.89.18.8636

Ribosomal movement impeded at a pseudoknot required for frameshifting.

C Tu 1, T H Tzeng 1, J A Bruenn 1
PMCID: PMC49975  PMID: 1528874

Abstract

Translational frameshifting sometimes occurs when ribosomes encounter a "shift" site preceding a region of unusual secondary structure, which in at least three cases is known to be a pseudoknot. We provide evidence that ribosomes have a decreased rate of movement through a pseudoknot required for frameshifting. These paused ribosomes are directly situated over the shift sequence. Ribosomal pausing appears to be necessary but not sufficient for frameshifting.

Full text

PDF
8636

Images in this article

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Atkins J. F., Weiss R. B., Gesteland R. F. Ribosome gymnastics--degree of difficulty 9.5, style 10.0. Cell. 1990 Aug 10;62(3):413–423. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(90)90007-2. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Belcourt M. F., Farabaugh P. J. Ribosomal frameshifting in the yeast retrotransposon Ty: tRNAs induce slippage on a 7 nucleotide minimal site. Cell. 1990 Jul 27;62(2):339–352. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(90)90371-K. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Brierley I., Digard P., Inglis S. C. Characterization of an efficient coronavirus ribosomal frameshifting signal: requirement for an RNA pseudoknot. Cell. 1989 May 19;57(4):537–547. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(89)90124-4. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Brierley I., Rolley N. J., Jenner A. J., Inglis S. C. Mutational analysis of the RNA pseudoknot component of a coronavirus ribosomal frameshifting signal. J Mol Biol. 1991 Aug 20;220(4):889–902. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(91)90361-9. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Chamorro M., Parkin N., Varmus H. E. An RNA pseudoknot and an optimal heptameric shift site are required for highly efficient ribosomal frameshifting on a retroviral messenger RNA. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1992 Jan 15;89(2):713–717. doi: 10.1073/pnas.89.2.713. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Craigen W. J., Caskey C. T. Translational frameshifting: where will it stop? Cell. 1987 Jul 3;50(1):1–2. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(87)90652-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Diamond M. E., Dowhanick J. J., Nemeroff M. E., Pietras D. F., Tu C. L., Bruenn J. A. Overlapping genes in a yeast double-stranded RNA virus. J Virol. 1989 Sep;63(9):3983–3990. doi: 10.1128/jvi.63.9.3983-3990.1989. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Dinman J. D., Icho T., Wickner R. B. A -1 ribosomal frameshift in a double-stranded RNA virus of yeast forms a gag-pol fusion protein. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1991 Jan 1;88(1):174–178. doi: 10.1073/pnas.88.1.174. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Doohan J. P., Samuel C. E. Biosynthesis of reovirus-specified polypeptides: ribosome pausing during the translation of reovirus S1 mRNA. Virology. 1992 Feb;186(2):409–425. doi: 10.1016/0042-6822(92)90006-b. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Jacks T., Madhani H. D., Masiarz F. R., Varmus H. E. Signals for ribosomal frameshifting in the Rous sarcoma virus gag-pol region. Cell. 1988 Nov 4;55(3):447–458. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(88)90031-1. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Jacks T., Power M. D., Masiarz F. R., Luciw P. A., Barr P. J., Varmus H. E. Characterization of ribosomal frameshifting in HIV-1 gag-pol expression. Nature. 1988 Jan 21;331(6153):280–283. doi: 10.1038/331280a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Jacks T., Townsley K., Varmus H. E., Majors J. Two efficient ribosomal frameshifting events are required for synthesis of mouse mammary tumor virus gag-related polyproteins. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1987 Jun;84(12):4298–4302. doi: 10.1073/pnas.84.12.4298. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Jacks T., Varmus H. E. Expression of the Rous sarcoma virus pol gene by ribosomal frameshifting. Science. 1985 Dec 13;230(4731):1237–1242. doi: 10.1126/science.2416054. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Krupp G., Gross H. J. Rapid RNA sequencing: nucleases from Staphylococcus aureus and Neurospora crassa discriminate between uridine and cytidine. Nucleic Acids Res. 1979 Aug 10;6(11):3481–3490. doi: 10.1093/nar/6.11.3481. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Melton D. A., Krieg P. A., Rebagliati M. R., Maniatis T., Zinn K., Green M. R. Efficient in vitro synthesis of biologically active RNA and RNA hybridization probes from plasmids containing a bacteriophage SP6 promoter. Nucleic Acids Res. 1984 Sep 25;12(18):7035–7056. doi: 10.1093/nar/12.18.7035. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Nossal N. G. DNA synthesis on a double-stranded DNA template by the T4 bacteriophage DNA polymerase and the T4 gene 32 DNA unwinding protein. J Biol Chem. 1974 Sep 10;249(17):5668–5676. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Tzeng T. H., Tu C. L., Bruenn J. A. Ribosomal frameshifting requires a pseudoknot in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae double-stranded RNA virus. J Virol. 1992 Feb;66(2):999–1006. doi: 10.1128/jvi.66.2.999-1006.1992. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Vieira J., Messing J. Production of single-stranded plasmid DNA. Methods Enzymol. 1987;153:3–11. doi: 10.1016/0076-6879(87)53044-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Weiss R. B., Dunn D. M., Shuh M., Atkins J. F., Gesteland R. F. E. coli ribosomes re-phase on retroviral frameshift signals at rates ranging from 2 to 50 percent. New Biol. 1989 Nov;1(2):159–169. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Wilson W., Braddock M., Adams S. E., Rathjen P. D., Kingsman S. M., Kingsman A. J. HIV expression strategies: ribosomal frameshifting is directed by a short sequence in both mammalian and yeast systems. Cell. 1988 Dec 23;55(6):1159–1169. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(88)90260-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Wolin S. L., Walter P. Ribosome pausing and stacking during translation of a eukaryotic mRNA. EMBO J. 1988 Nov;7(11):3559–3569. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1988.tb03233.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. ten Dam E. B., Pleij C. W., Bosch L. RNA pseudoknots: translational frameshifting and readthrough on viral RNAs. Virus Genes. 1990 Jul;4(2):121–136. doi: 10.1007/BF00678404. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America are provided here courtesy of National Academy of Sciences

RESOURCES