The start codon is the first

codon Genetic code is a set of rules used by living cells to translate information encoded within genetic material (DNA or RNA sequences of nucleotide triplets or codons) into proteins. Translation is accomplished by the ribosome, which links prote ...

of a

messenger RNA In molecular biology, messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) is a single-stranded molecule of RNA that corresponds to the genetic sequence of a gene, and is read by a ribosome in the process of synthesizing a protein. mRNA is created during the ...

(mRNA) transcript translated by a

ribosome Ribosomes () are molecular machine, macromolecular machines, found within all cell (biology), cells, that perform Translation (biology), biological protein synthesis (messenger RNA translation). Ribosomes link amino acids together in the order s ...

. The start codon always codes for

methionine Methionine (symbol Met or M) () is an essential amino acid in humans. As the precursor of other non-essential amino acids such as cysteine and taurine, versatile compounds such as SAM-e, and the important antioxidant glutathione, methionine play ...

eukaryote The eukaryotes ( ) constitute the Domain (biology), domain of Eukaryota or Eukarya, organisms whose Cell (biology), cells have a membrane-bound cell nucleus, nucleus. All animals, plants, Fungus, fungi, seaweeds, and many unicellular organisms ...

s and

archaea Archaea ( ) is a Domain (biology), domain of organisms. Traditionally, Archaea only included its Prokaryote, prokaryotic members, but this has since been found to be paraphyletic, as eukaryotes are known to have evolved from archaea. Even thou ...

and a ''N''-formylmethionine (fMet) in bacteria,

mitochondria A mitochondrion () is an organelle found in the cells of most eukaryotes, such as animals, plants and fungi. Mitochondria have a double membrane structure and use aerobic respiration to generate adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is us ...

and

plastid A plastid is a membrane-bound organelle found in the Cell (biology), cells of plants, algae, and some other eukaryotic organisms. Plastids are considered to be intracellular endosymbiotic cyanobacteria. Examples of plastids include chloroplasts ...

s. The start codon is often preceded by a 5' untranslated region (

5' UTR The 5′ untranslated region (also known as 5′ UTR, leader sequence, transcript leader, or leader RNA) is the region of a messenger RNA (mRNA) that is directly Upstream and downstream (DNA), upstream from the initiation codon. This region is im ...

). In

prokaryotes A prokaryote (; less commonly spelled procaryote) is a single-celled organism whose cell lacks a nucleus and other membrane-bound organelles. The word ''prokaryote'' comes from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'before', and (), meaning 'nut' ...

this includes the

ribosome binding site A ribosome binding site, or ribosomal binding site (RBS), is a sequence of nucleotides upstream of the start codon of an mRNA transcript that is responsible for the recruitment of a ribosome during the initiation of translation. Mostly, RBS refers ...

Decoding

In all three domains of life, the start codon is decoded by a special "initiation"

transfer RNA Transfer ribonucleic acid (tRNA), formerly referred to as soluble ribonucleic acid (sRNA), is an adaptor molecule composed of RNA, typically 76 to 90 nucleotides in length (in eukaryotes). In a cell, it provides the physical link between the gene ...

different from the tRNAs used for elongation. There are important structural differences between an initiating tRNA and an elongating one, with distinguish features serving to satisfy the constraints of the translation system. In bacteria and organelles, an acceptor stem C1:A72 mismatch guide formylation, which directs recruitment by the 30S ribosome into the P site; so-called "3GC" base pairs allow assembly into the 70S ribosome. In eukaryotes and archaea, the T stem prevents the

elongation factor Elongation factors are a set of proteins that function at the ribosome, during protein synthesis, to facilitate translational elongation from the formation of the first to the last peptide bond of a growing polypeptide. Most common elongation ...

s from binding, while

eIF2 Eukaryotic Initiation Factor 2 (eIF2) is a eukaryotic initiation factor. It is required for most forms of eukaryotic translation initiation. eIF2 mediates the binding of tRNAiMet to the ribosome in a GTP-dependent manner. eIF2 is a heterotrimer ...

specifically recognizes the attached methionine and a A1:U72 basepair. In any case, the natural initiating tRNA only codes for methionine. Knowledge of the key recognizing features has allowed researchers to construct alternative initiating tRNAs that code for different amino acids; see below.

Alternative start codons

Alternative start codons are different from the standard AUG codon and are found in both

(bacteria and archaea) and

eukaryotes The eukaryotes ( ) constitute the domain of Eukaryota or Eukarya, organisms whose cells have a membrane-bound nucleus. All animals, plants, fungi, seaweeds, and many unicellular organisms are eukaryotes. They constitute a major group of ...

. Alternate start codons are still translated as Met when they are at the start of a protein (even if the codon encodes a different amino acid otherwise). This is because a separate tRNA is used for initiation.

Eukaryotes

Alternate start codons (non-AUG) are very rare in eukaryotic genomes: a wide range of mechanisms work to guarantee the relative fidelity of AUG initiation. However, naturally occurring non-AUG start codons have been reported for some cellular mRNAs. Seven out of the nine possible single-nucleotide substitutions at the AUG start codon of

dihydrofolate reductase Dihydrofolate reductase, or DHFR, is an enzyme that reduces dihydrofolic acid to tetrahydrofolic acid, using NADPH as an electron donor, which can be converted to the kinds of tetrahydrofolate cofactors used in one-carbon transfer chemistry. ...

are functional as translation start sites in mammalian cells.

Bacteria

Bacteria do not generally have the wide range of translation factors monitoring start codon fidelity. GUG and UUG are the main, even "canonical", alternate start codons. GUG in particular is important to controlling the replication of plasmids. ''

E. coli ''Escherichia coli'' ( )Wells, J. C. (2000) Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. Harlow ngland Pearson Education Ltd. is a gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped, coliform bacterium of the genus ''Escherichia'' that is commonly foun ...

'' uses 83% AUG (3542/4284), 14% (612) GUG, 3% (103) UUG and one or two others (e.g., an AUU and possibly a CUG). Well-known coding regions that do not have AUG initiation codons are those of ''lacI'' (GUG) and ''lacA'' (UUG) in the ''

'' lac operon. Two more recent studies have independently shown that 17 or more non-AUG start codons may initiate translation in ''E. coli''.

Mitochondria

Mitochondrial genome Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA and mDNA) is the DNA located in the mitochondria organelles in a eukaryotic cell that converts chemical energy from food into adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial DNA is a small portion of the DNA contained in ...

s use alternate start codons more significantly (AUA and AUG in humans). Many such examples, with codons, systematic range, and citations, are given in the NCBI list of translation tables.

Archaea

Archaea, which are prokaryotes with a translation machinery similar to but simpler than that of eukaryotes, allow initiation at UUG and GUG.

Upstream start codons

These are "alternative" start codons in the sense that they are upstream of the regular start codons and thus could be used as alternative start codons. More than half of all human mRNAs have at least one AUG codon upstream (uAUG) of their annotated translation initiation starts (TIS) (58% in the current versions of the human RefSeq sequence). Their potential use as TISs could result in translation of so-called upstream Open Reading Frames (uORFs). uORF translation usually results in the synthesis of short polypeptides, some of which have been shown to be functional, e.g., in ASNSD1, MIEF1,

MKKS McKusick–Kaufman/Bardet–Biedl syndromes putative chaperonin is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''MKKS'' gene. This gene encodes a protein with sequence similarity to the chaperonin family. The encoded protein may have a role in p ...

, and SLC35A4. However, it is believed that most translated uORFs only have a mild inhibitory effect on downstream translation because most uORF starts are leaky (i.e. don't initiate translation or because ribosomes terminating after translation of short ORFs are often capable of reinitiating).

Standard genetic code

Non-methionine start codons

Natural

Translation started by an

internal ribosome entry site An internal ribosome entry site, abbreviated IRES, is an RNA element that allows for translation initiation in a cap-independent manner, as part of the greater process of protein synthesis. Initiation of eukaryotic translation nearly always occur ...

(IRES), which bypasses a number of regular eukaryotic initiation systems, can have a non-methinone start with GCU or CAA codons. Mammalian cells can initiate translation with

leucine Leucine (symbol Leu or L) is an essential amino acid that is used in the biosynthesis of proteins. Leucine is an α-amino acid, meaning it contains an α-amino group (which is in the protonated −NH3+ form under biological conditions), an α-Car ...

using a specific leucyl-tRNA that decodes the codon CUG. This mechanism is independent of eIF2. No secondary structure similar to that of an IRES is needed. It proceeds by ribosomal scanning, and a Kozak context enhances initiation efficiency.

Engineered start codons

Engineered initiator tRNA (tRNA, changed from a MetY tRNA) have been used to initiate translation at the amber stop codon UAG in ''E. coli''. Initiation with this tRNA not only inserts the traditional

formylmethionine ''N''-Formylmethionine (fMet, HCO-Met, For-Met) is a derivative of the amino acid methionine in which a formyl group has been added to the amino group. It is specifically used for initiation of protein synthesis from bacterial and organellar g ...

, but also formylglutamine, as glutamyl-tRNA synthase also recognizes the new tRNA. (Recall from above that the bacterial translation initiation system does not specifically check for methionine, only the formyl modification). One study has shown that the amber initiator tRNA does not initiate translation to any measurable degree from genomically-encoded UAG codons, only plasmid-borne reporters with strong upstream Shine-Dalgarno sites.

References

External links

* The Genetic Codes. Compiled by Andrzej (Anjay) Elzanowski and Jim Ostell, National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), Bethesda, Maryland, U

{{GeneticTranslation DNA Molecular genetics