Detecting and Rescuing Stalled Ribosomes

Ribosomes that stall inappropriately during protein synthesis harbor proteotoxic components linked to cellular stress and neurodegenerative diseases. Molecular mechanisms that rescue stalled ribosomes must selectively detect rare aberrant translational complexes and process the heterogeneous components. Ribosomeassociated quality control pathways eliminate problematic messenger RNAs and nascent proteins on stalled translational complexes. In addition, recent studies have uncovered general principles of stall recognition upstream of quality control pathways and fail-safe mechanisms that ensure nascent proteome integrity. Here, we discuss developments in our mechanistic understanding of the detection and rescue of stalled ribosomal complexes in eukaryotes.

Automated summary

This article discusses the advancements in our mechanistic understanding of detecting and rescuing stalled ribosomal complexes in eukaryotes, including selectively detecting rare aberrant translational complexes, processing heterogeneous components, eliminating problematic RNA and nascent proteins through quality control pathways, and ensuring nascent proteome integrity through fail-safe mechanisms.