Translation mechanism and regulation: old players, new concepts. Meeting on translational control and non-coding RNA.

Introduction Many pathways that regulate gene expression target the complex process of protein synthesis and in particular its initiation stage. During the past 40 years or so, all the initiation factors required for the assembly of translationally competent ribosomes have been identified and their principal roles determined. Recently, there has been significant progress in determining the structure of the components of the translation apparatus: from crystal structures of prokaryotic ribo somes, to crystal and nuclear magnetic resonance structures of factors, and cryo-electron microscopy reconstructions of functional ribo somal complexes. These advances now allow the molecular mechanisms of the stages involved in initiation to be