Baker's yeast, the new work horse in protein synthesis studies: Analyzing eukaryotic translation initiation

✍ Scribed by Patrick Linder; Annik Prat

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1990
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 848 KB
• Volume: 12
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0265-9247
• DOI: 10.1002/bies.950121103

✦ Synopsis

The possibility of combining powerful genetic methods with biochemical analysis has made baker's yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae the organism of choice to study the complex process of translation initiation in eukaryotes. Several new initiation factor genes and interactions between components of the translational machinery that were not predicted by current models have been revealed by genetic analysis of extragenic suppressors of translational initiation mutants. In addition, a yeast cellfree translation system has been developed that allows in vivo phenotypes to be correlated with in vitro biochemical activities. We summarize here the current view of yeast translational initiation obtained by these approaches.