Regulatory steps in the initiation of protein synthesis.

Regulation of protein synthesis is being exerted at different levels with a different extent of attenuation. The major control module seems to work by the inactivation of the elF-2 recycling which enables the cell to shift down from a high rate of initiation to a low rate. Certain events in the cell cycle like mitosis do show such a drastic change in initiation rate. It is suggested that modifications of elF-2 by phosphorylation of the alpha-subunit by different protein-kinases is the basis for such a control mechanism. Already two protein kinases of this type have been described, the hemin-regulated inhibitor and the ds-RNA activated inhibitor from interferon-treated cells. On the other hand modifications of the beta-subunit by other metabolic events, for instance low NADH/NAD+ ratio, can as yet not be excluded. Other conditions like amino acid starvation, serum deprivation, heat-shock and virus-infection seem to evoke quite different strategies. In some cases it has been demonstrated that inactivation of mRNA binding factors as elF-4B and elF-4E, favour the translation of low-dependence, i.e. low secondary structure, messengers. It shall be worthwhile to establish whether the mRNA's with such low degree of secondary structure encoded proteins that are aimed at the survival of the cell under extreme metabolic or stress conditions. Much more work on the structure and nucleotide sequences of the leader sequence is needed to prove these hypothetical points.