Mechanical forces can be generated when nascent protein segments are integrated into a membrane. These forces are then transmitted through the nascent protein to the ribosome's catalytic core, but only a few biological consequences of this process have been identified to date. In this issue, Harrington et al. present evidence that these forces form a conserved mechanism to influence the efficiency of ribosomal frameshifting during translation of viral RNA, indicating that mechanical forces may play a broader regulatory role in translation than previously appreciated. © 2020 Leininger et al.
Sarah E Leininger, Carol Deutsch, Edward P O'Brien. Forcing the ribosome to change its message. The Journal of biological chemistry. 2020 May 15;295(20):6809-6810
PMID: 32414911
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