Genome-wide survey of ribosome collision [anisomycin]

In protein synthesis, ribosome movement is not always smooth, rather often impeded by numerous reasons. Although the deceleration of ribosome defines the fates of the mRNAs and the synthesizing proteins, fundamental questions remain to be addressed including where ribosomes pause in mRNAs, what kind of RNA/amino acid context causes the pausing, and how physiologically significant the slowdown of protein synthesis is. Here we surveyed the position of ribosome collisions, caused by ribosome pausing, at a genome-wide level using the modified ribosome profiling in human and zebrafish. The collided ribosomes, i.e. disome, emerge at various sites; the proline-proline-lysine motif, stop codons, and 3' UTR. The number of ribosomes in a collision is not limited to two, rather four to five, forming a queue of ribosomes. Especially, XBP1, a key modulator of unfolded protein response, shows striking queues of collided ribosomes thus acts as a substrate for ribosome-associated quality control (RQC) to avoid the accumulation of undesired proteins in the absence of stress. Our results provide an insight into the causes and the consequences of ribosome slowdowns by dissecting the specific architecture of ribosomes. Overall design: Ribosome profiling