Model of the pathway of –1 frameshifting: Kinetics

Programmed –1 translational frameshifting is a process where the translating ribosome shifts the reading frame, which is directed by at least two stimulatory elements in the mRNA—a slippery sequence and a downstream secondary structure. Despite a lot of theoretical and experimental studies, the detailed pathway and mechanism of the –1 frameshifting remain unclear. Here, in order to understand the pathway and mechanism we consider two models to study the kinetics of the –1 frameshifting, providing quantitative explanations of the recent biochemical data of Caliskan et al. (Cell 2014, 157, 1619–1631). One model is modified from that proposed by Caliskan et al. and the other is modified from that proposed in the previous work to explain the single-molecule experimental data. It is shown that by adjusting values of some fundamental parameters both models can give quantitative explanations of the biochemical data of Caliskan et al. on the kinetics of EF-G binding and dissociation and on the kinetics of movement of tRNAs inside the ribosome. However, for the former model some adjusted parameter values deviate significantly from those determined from the available single-molecule experiments, while for the latter model all parameter values are consistent with the available biochemical and single-molecule experimental data. Thus, the latter model most likely reflects the pathway and mechanism of the –1 frameshifting.