The expression of an archaeal α-L-fucosidase is regulated by programmed -1 frameshifting in vivo demonstrating that translational recoding is universal

Federica De Lise 
IBBR - UOS Napoli - Italy

January 27, 2021 (11:30-12:30)
Webinar Link: https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/910384365

Abstract: Translation, initially considered to be universally conserved, is now known to be flexible. In fact, the ribosomes can deviate from the standard translational rules in a programmed way as results of a mechanism named translational recoding. Recoding has been found in all three domains of life and groups events that happen during translation: stop codon readthrough, programmed ±1 frameshifting, and ribosome bypassing. In Archaea, recoding has been reported for stop codon readthrough, that regulate the incorporation of 21st and 22nd aminoacids selenocysteine and pyrrolysine, and programmed -1 frameshifting that allows the expression of a functional α-L-fucosidase in the hyperthermophile crenarchaeon Saccharolobus solfataricus P2, in which other interrupted genes have been identified. Although this phenomenon is important for the regulation of protein expression, the physiology and the adaptation of organisms, little is still known about this mechanism and the genes whose expression could be regulated by recoding in Archaea. We present our work on the serendipitous identification and the mechanism of regulation of the first archaeal gene expressed by programmed -1 frameshifting. In addition, we will report on the discovery of new potential recoded archaeal genes in genomes and metagenomes of Archaea. These studies strongly suggest that interrupted genes found in annotated (meta)genomes could be functional in vivo and that recoding is a universal mechanism of regulation of gene expression that merits further investigations in Archaea to shed some light on the correlation between the flexibility of the genetic code and the improved fitness in extreme environments

Author's Info: https://ibbr.cnr.it/ibbr/info/people/federica-de-lise