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:2020
卷号:117
期号:7
页码:3610-3620
DOI:10.1073/pnas.1904469117
出版社:The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要:The substrate for ribosomes actively engaged in protein synthesis is a ternary complex of elongation factor Tu (EF-Tu), aminoacyl-tRNA (aa-tRNA), and GTP. EF-Tu plays a critical role in mRNA decoding by increasing the rate and fidelity of aa-tRNA selection at each mRNA codon. Here, using three-color single-molecule fluorescence resonance energy transfer imaging and molecular dynamics simulations, we examine the timing and role of conformational events that mediate the release of aa-tRNA from EF-Tu and EF-Tu from the ribosome after GTP hydrolysis. Our investigations reveal that conformational changes in EF-Tu coordinate the rate-limiting passage of aa-tRNA through the accommodation corridor en route to the peptidyl transferase center of the large ribosomal subunit. Experiments using distinct inhibitors of the accommodation process further show that aa-tRNA must at least partially transit the accommodation corridor for EF-Tu⋅GDP to release. aa-tRNAs failing to undergo peptide bond formation at the end of accommodation corridor passage after EF-Tu release can be reengaged by EF-Tu⋅GTP from solution, coupled to GTP hydrolysis. These observations suggest that additional rounds of ternary complex formation can occur on the ribosome during proofreading, particularly when peptide bond formation is slow, which may serve to increase both the rate and fidelity of protein synthesis at the expense of GTP hydrolysis..