Appendix 5—table 2. Expression used to estimate the association rate constants for our predictions (Table 1).

Diffusion coefficients are listed in Appendix 5—table 1.

Factors involved in reaction	Variable	Used expression for association rate constant
Ternary complex and ribosome	${\widehat{k}}_{on}^{TC}$	${\displaystyle 6.4\pm 0.6}$ µM−1s−1 (Dai et al., 2016)
EF-G and ribosome	${\widehat{k}}_{on}^G$	${\widehat{k}}_{on}^{TC}\left(D_G+D_{ribo}\right)/\left(D_{TC}+D_{ribo}\right)$
aaRS And tRNAs	${\widehat{k}}_{on}^{aaRS}$	${\widehat{k}}_{on}^{TC}\left(D_{tRNA}+D_{aaRS}\right)/\left(D_{TC}+D_{ribo}\right)$
EF-Ts and ribosome	${\widehat{k}}_{on}^{Ts}$	${\widehat{k}}_{on}^{TC}\left(D_{Ts}+D_{ribo}\right)/\left(D_{TC}+D_{ribo}\right)$
EF-Tu and tRNAs	${\widehat{k}}_{on}^{Tu}$	${\widehat{k}}_{on}^{TC}\left(D_{tRNA}+D_{Tu}\right)/\left(D_{TC}+D_{ribo}\right)$
IF1 and 30S subunit	${\widehat{k}}_{on}^{IF1}$	${\widehat{k}}_{on}^{TC}\left(D_{IF1}+D_{subunit}\right)/\left(D_{TC}+D_{ribo}\right)$
IF2 and 30S subunit	${\widehat{k}}_{on}^{IF2}$	${\widehat{k}}_{on}^{TC}\left(D_{IF2}+D_{subunit}\right)/\left(D_{TC}+D_{ribo}\right)$
IF3 and 30S subunit	${\widehat{k}}_{on}^{IF3}$	${\widehat{k}}_{on}^{TC}\left(D_{IF3}+D_{subunit}\right)/\left(D_{TC}+D_{ribo}\right)$
50S and 30S subunits	${\widehat{k}}_{on}^{50S}$	${\widehat{k}}_{on}^{TC}\left(D_{subunit}+D_{subunit}\right)/\left(D_{TC}+D_{ribo}\right)$
RF1/RF2 and ribosome	${\widehat{k}}_{on}^{RFI}$	${\widehat{k}}_{on}^{TC}\left(D_{RFI}+D_{ribo}\right)/\left(D_{TC}+D_{ribo}\right)$
RF4 and ribosome	${\widehat{k}}_{on}^{RF4}$	${\widehat{k}}_{on}^{TC}\left(D_{RF4}+D_{ribo}\right)/\left(D_{TC}+D_{ribo}\right)$