Figure 29

RNA-assisted protein loop formation (from [95]). Translation begins with the attachment of the 5' end of a mRNA to the ribosome (A). Ribonucleotides are indicated by blue "+" and the 1st and 3rd bases in the codons by blue lines; the 2nd base positions are left empty. A positively charged amino acid ((+) and red dots), for example arginine, remains attached to its codon. The mRNA forms a loop because the 1st and 3rd bases are locally complementary to each other in reverse orientation (B). The growing protein is indicated by red circles. When translation proceeds to an amino acid with especially high affinity for the mRNA-attached arginine, for example a negatively charged Glu or Asp ((-) and blue dot), the charge attraction removes the Arg from its mRNA binding site and the entire protein is released from the mRNA and completes a protein loop (C). The protein continues to grow towards the direction of its carboxy terminal (COOH).