Ribosome profiling or ribo-seq is a new technique that provides genome-wide information on protein synthesis (GWIPS) in vivo. It is based on the deep sequencing of ribosome protected mRNA fragments allowing the measurement of ribosome density along all RNA molecules present in the cell. At the same time, the high resolution of this technique allows detailed analysis of ribosome density on indiv...

Although most mRNAs initiate translation by 5' ribosome scanning, some small fraction of mammalian and viral mRNAs utilize either of two alternate mechanisms, known as internal ribosome entry and ribosome shunting. Ribosome shunting is a poorly understood form of initiation in which 40S ribosome subunits are loaded onto mRNA through interactions with the m7GTP cap, but then bypass large segment...

Elongation factor G (EF-G) promotes the translocation step in bacterial protein synthesis and, together with ribosome recycling factor (RRF), the disassembly of the post-termination ribosome. Unlike translocation, ribosome disassembly strictly requires GTP hydrolysis by EF-G. Here we report that ribosome disassembly is strongly inhibited by vanadate, an analog of inorganic phosphate (Pi), indic...

DNA ligation is essential to many molecular biology manipulations, but this reaction is often carried out by following generic guidelines or by trial and error. Maximizing the desired ligation product is especially important in DNA library construction for directed evolution experiments since library diversity is directly affected by ligation efficiency. Here, we suggest that display vectors th...

The experimental azimuthal dihadron distributions at RHIC show a double peak structure in the away side (∆φ = π ± 1.2 rad.) for intermediate pt particles. A variety of models have appeared trying to describe this modification. We will review most of them, with special emphasis in the Conical Flow scenario in which the observed shape is a consequence of the emission of sound by a supersonic high...

Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) of intact Escherichia coli (E. coli) was used to identify non-lipidic targets of the antimicrobial peptide (AMP) MSI-78. The DSC thermograms revealed that, in addition to its known lytic properties, MSI-78 also has a striking effect on ribosomes. MSI-78's effect on DSC scans of bacteria was similar to that of kanamycin, an antibiotic drug known to target ...

Cotranslational protein translocation is a universally conserved process for secretory and membrane protein biosynthesis. Nascent polypeptides emerging from a translating ribosome are either transported across or inserted into the membrane via the ribosome-bound Sec61 channel. Here, we report structures of a mammalian ribosome-Sec61 complex in both idle and translating states, determined to 3.4...