Ribosomal frameshift
phenomenon during translation of mRNA
Ribosomal frameshifting, also known as translational frameshifting or translational recoding, is a biological phenomenon that occurs during translation that results in the production of multiple, unique proteins from a single mRNA. The process can be programmed by the nucleotide sequence of the mRNA and is sometimes affected by the secondary, 3-dimensional mRNA structure. It has been described mainly in viruses (especially retroviruses), retrotransposons and bacterial insertion elements, and also in some cellular genes.
Small molecules, proteins, and nucleic acids have also been found to stimulate levels of frameshifting. In December 2023, it was reported that in vitro-transcribed (IVT) mRNAs in response to BNT162b2 (Pfizer–BioNTech) anti-COVID-19 vaccine caused ribosomal frameshifting.
Process overview
Proteins are translated by reading tri-nucleotides on the mRNA strand, also known as codons, from one end of the mRNA to the other (from the 5' to the 3' end) starting with the amino acid methionine as the start (initiation) codon AUG. Each codon is translated into a single amino acid. The code itself is considered degenerate, meaning that a particular amino acid can be specified by more than one codon. However, a shift of any number of nucleotides that is not divisible by 3 in the reading frame will cause subsequent codons to be read differently. This effectively changes the ribosomal reading frame.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ribosomal frameshift” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.