Mini-REVIEW: Translation Termination and Its Regulation in Eukaryotes: Recent Insights Provided by Studies in Yeast

P. Mugnier and M. F. Tuite^*

Department of Biosciences, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NJ, UK; fax: 44 (0) 1227 763912; E-mail: M.F.Tuite@ukc.ac.uk

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received July 10, 1999

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In protein synthesis, the arrival of one or other of the three stop codons in the ribosomal A-site triggers the binding of a release factor (RF) to the ribosome and subsequent polypeptide chain release. In eukaryotes, the RF is composed of two proteins, eRF1 and eRF3. eRF1 is responsible for the hydrolysis of the peptidyl-tRNA, while eRF3 provides a GTP-dependent function, although its precise role remains to be defined. Recent findings on translation termination and its regulation from studies in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae are reviewed and the potential role of eRF3 is discussed.

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KEY WORDS: yeast, translation termination, eukaryote release factor (eRF), nonsense-mediated mRNA decay

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