Ribosomal frameshifting and transcriptional slippage: From genetic steganography and cryptography to adventitious use

Atkins, John F.; Loughran, Gary; Bhatt, Pramod R.; Firth, Andrew E.; Baranov, Pavel V.

A completely different type of 3 signal influences S. cerevisiae antizyme +1 regulatory frameshifting (268) . At low polyamine levels when synthesis of the negative regulator antizyme is not beneficial, the interaction of a specific nascent peptide sequence encoded far downstream of the frameshift site with the ribosome exit tunnel leads to a stall. This stall is thought to block the transit of following ribosomes with a trail-back effect on frameshifting. However, at high polyamine levels, the polyamines are proposed to interact with the downstream-encoded nascent peptide while within the ribosome and prevent formation of the stalling interaction. Then absence of a ribosome pile-up is proposed to allow the intrinsically high level of frameshifting to occur (268) .