Selective translation mechanism through two paralogs of eukaryotic initiation factor 4A

Eukaryotic initiation factor (eIF) 4A is a DEAD-box RNA-binding protein that plays a pivotal role in translation initiation. Although mammals have two eIF4A paralogs, eIF4A1 and eIF4A2, their redundancy has been long assumed because of high homology and their functional difference has been poorly understood. Here we show that eIF4A paralogs employ differential translation programs. Ribosome profiling of eIF4A1- and eIF4A2-knockout HEK293T cell lines revealed that translation efficiency changes were divergent across transcriptome and distinct group of mRNAs were regulated by each paralog. Our analysis indicates that eIF4A1 and eIF4A2 facilitate translation of specific mRNAs. Overall design: Ribosome profiling and RNA-seq