Extended Shine-Dalgarno motifs govern translation initiation in Staphylococcus aureus - PubMed
8 days ago
- #translation initiation
- #Staphylococcus aureus
- #biofilm regulation
- High-resolution mapping of translation start sites in Staphylococcus aureus reveals distinct initiation features and numerous unannotated small ORFs.
- Cryo-EM analysis shows S. aureus relies on extended, start codon proximal Shine-Dalgarno (SD) interactions for specificity against phylogenetically distant bacteria.
- Several natural S. aureus initiation sites are not correctly decoded by E. coli ribosomes.
- New and conserved non-canonical start codons identified, with regulatory initiation sites containing characteristic extended SD sequence motifs.
- A novel example of uORF-mediated translational control in S. aureus links codon rarity, ribosome pausing, and arginine availability to biofilm formation.
- Translation of a small leader peptide modulates expression of a key biofilm regulator, connecting nutrient sensing to virulence.