Table 1. Brief description of the function of core translation factors considered.

For reviews of mRNA translation, see Rodnina, 2018; Chen et al., 2016.

Step	Factor	Function
Initiation	IF1	Initiation factor 1: binds to 30S ribosome subunits to facilitate initiator tRNA binding (Laursen et al., 2005; Gualerzi and Pon, 2015).
Initiation	IF2	Initiation factor 2: ribosome-dependent GTPase interacting with 30 ribosome subunits, ensures correct binding of initiator tRNAs (Laursen et al., 2005; Gualerzi and Pon, 2015).
Initiation	IF3	Initiation factor 3: prevents premature docking of 50S ribosomal subunits (Laursen et al., 2005; Gualerzi and Pon, 2015).
Elongation	EF-Tu	Elongation factor Tu: binds to charged tRNAs to form ternary complexes, brings charged tRNAs to empty ribosome A sites. (Weijland et al., 1992; Agirrezabala and Frank, 2009; Andersen et al., 2003)
Elongation	aaRS	tRNA synthetases: charge tRNAs with cognate amino acids (Ibba and Soll, 2000; Pang et al., 2014).
Elongation	EF-G	Elongation factor G: catalyzes translocation steps of the ribosome after peptide bond formation (Andersen et al., 2003; Agirrezabala and Frank, 2009).
Elongation	EF-Ts	Elongation factor Ts: nucleotide exchange factor for EF-Tu (Agirrezabala and Frank, 2009; Andersen et al., 2003).
Termination	RF1/RF2	Peptide chain release factors 1 and 2: recognize stop codon and hydrolyze the completed protein. RF1 recognizes UAA, UAG, and RF2 UAA, UGA (Bertram et al., 2001).
Termination	RF4	Ribosome recycling factor: catalyzes the dissociation of ribosome subunits following peptide chain release in translation termination (Bertram et al., 2001).