THE EFFECT OF RIBOSOMAL PROTEIN-S1 FROM ESCHERICHIA-COLI AND MICROCOCCUS-LUTEUS ON PROTEIN-SYNTHESIS INVITRO BY ESCHERICHIA-COLI AND BACILLUS-SUBTILIS

We have designed a set of nine plasmids containing the Bacillus pumilis cat gene with one of three Shine-Dalgarno (SD) sequences (weak, strong or stronger) and one of three initiation codons (AUG, GUG or UUG). These constructions have been used to determine the effect of ribosomal protein S1, SD and initiation codon sequences and Escherichia coli ribosomal protein S1 on translation in vitro by E. coli and B. subtilis ribosomes. Translation of these nine constructions was determined with three types of ribosomes: E. coli containing ribosomal protein S1, E. coli depleted of S1, and B. subtilis which is naturally free of S1. E. coli ribosomes were able to translate all nine transcripts with variable efficiencies. B. subtilis and S1-depleted E. coli ribosomes were similar to each other and differed from non-depleted E. coli ribosomes in that they required strong or stronger SD sequences and were unable to translate any of the weak transcripts. Addition of S1 from either E. coli or Micrococcus luteus, a Gram-positive bacterium, enabled S1-depleted E. coli ribosomes to translate mRNAs with weak SD sequences but had no effect on B. subtilis ribosomes. AUG was the preferred initiation codon for all ribosome types; however, B. subtilis ribosomes showed greater tolerance for the non-AUG codons than either type of E. coli ribosome. The presence of a strong or stronger SD sequence increased the efficiency by which E. coli ribosomes could utilize non-AUG codons. The effect of non-AUG initiation codons was dependent on the SD with which they were associated, but the effect of the SD sequence was independent of the initiation codon. We conclude that the presence of a strong SD sequence alone is able to substitute for at least part of the activities of ribosomal protein S1, and that ribosomes that exhibit S1-independent translation on such messages also show less reliance on AUG as an initiation codon.