期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：1999
卷号：96
期号：16
页码：8973-8978
DOI：10.1073/pnas.96.16.8973
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：The downstream box (DB) is a sequence element that enhances translation of several bacterial and phage mRNAs. It has been proposed that the DB enhances translation by base pairing transiently to bases 1469-1483 of 16S rRNA, the so-called anti-DB, during the initiation phase of translation. We have tested this model of enhancer action by constructing mutations in the anti-DB that alter its mRNA base-pairing potential and examining expression of a variety of DB-containing mRNAs in strains expressing the mutant anti-DB 16S rRNA. We found that the rRNA mutant was viable and that expression of all tested DB-containing mRNAs was completely unaffected by radical alterations in the proposed anti-DB. These findings lead us to conclude that enhancement of translation by the DB does not involve mRNA-rRNA base pairing.
