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PROTEIN METABOLISM Obviously, Harry [Noller]’s finding doesn’t speak to how life started, and it doesn’t explain what came before RNA. But as part of the continually growing body of circumstantial evidence that there was a life form before us on this planet, from which we emerged—boy, it’s very strong! —Francis H. C. Crick, article in Symposia of the Society for Experimental Biology, 1958
How the Wobble Base of theAnticodon Determines the Number of Codons atRNA Can Recognize
Protein Synthesis • Protein Biosynthesis Takes Place in Five Stages; • Stage 1: Activation of Amino Acids • Stage 2: Initiation • Stage 3: Elongation • Stage 4: Termination and Release • Stage 5: Folding and Posttranslational Processing
Three-dimensional structure of yeast tRNAPhe deduced from x-ray diffraction analysis
Stage 1: Aminoacyl-tRNA Synthetases Attach theCorrect Amino Acids to Their tRNAs
Proofreading by Aminoacyl-tRNA Synthetases The aminoacylation of tRNA accomplishes two ends: (1) activation of an amino acid for peptide bond formation and (2) attachment of the amino acid to an adaptor tRNA that ensures appropriate placement of the amino acid in a growing polypeptide. The identity of the amino acid attached to a tRNA is not checked on the ribosome, so attachment of the correct amino acid to the tRNA is essential to the fidelity of protein synthesis.
Some positions (blue dots) are thesame in all tRNAs and therefore cannot be used to discriminate one from another. Other positions are known recognition points for one (orange) or more (green) aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases. Structural features other than sequence are important for recognition by some of the synthetases.
Messenger RNA sequences that serve as signals forinitiation of protein synthesis in bacteria
Protein complexes in the formation of a eukaryoticinitiation complex
Protein Factors Required for Initiation of Translation in Bacterial and Eukaryotic Cells
First elongation step in bacteria: binding of the secondaminoacyl-tRNA
First elongation step in bacteria: binding of the secondaminoacyl-tRNA
Second elongation step in bacteria: formation of the first peptide bond
Stage 4: Termination of Polypeptide Synthesis Requires a Special Signal
Stage 5: Newly Synthesized Polypeptide Chains Undergo Folding and Processing (Coupling of transcription and translation in bacteria.)
Stage 5: Newly Synthesized Polypeptide Chains Undergo Folding and Processing (posttranslational modifications) • Amino-Terminal and Carboxyl-Terminal Modifications • Loss of Signal Sequences • Modification of Individual Amino Acids • Attachment of Carbohydrate Side Chains • Addition of Isoprenyl Groups • Addition of Prosthetic Groups • Proteolytic Processing • Formation of Disulfide Cross-Links
Protein Synthesis Is Inhibited by Many Antibioticsand Toxins
Directing eukaryotic proteins with the appropriate signals to the endoplasmicreticulum
Protein Degradation Is Mediated by Specialized Systems in All Cells
Three-step cascade pathway by which ubiquitin is attached to a protein