On the Ribosomal Density that Maximizes Protein Translation Rate.
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 27861564.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0166481 and PMC identifier 5115748.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
During mRNA translation, several ribosomes attach to the same mRNA molecule simultaneously translating it into a protein. This pipelining increases the protein translation rate. A natural and important question is what ribosomal density maximizes the protein translation rate. Using mathematical models of ribosome flow along both a linear and a circular mRNA molecules we prove that typically the steady-state protein translation rate is maximized when the ribosomal density is one half of the maximal possible density. We discuss the implications of our results to endogenous genes under natural cellular conditions and also to synthetic biology.