Regulation of gene expression at the translational level. The rescue factor reverses thermosensitive protein synthesis in N4316, a conditionally-lethal mutant of Escherichia coli defective in translation.

Extracts of the conditionally-lethal mutant Escherichia coli N4316 are defective in a newly described translation factor, the rescue protein. We have analyzed the in vitro translation products of this mutant by gel electrophoresis during normal and arrested synthesis at the permissive and non-permissive temperatures. Translation programmed with MS2 bacteriophage RNA at the non-permissive temperature results in highly reduced synthesis of the coat protein with no detectable levels of the maturation and replicase products. Thus the relative number of copies of proteins synthesized by the ribosomes is altered in this mutant. In addition, there is mistranslation of the coat gene which results in the overproduction of the phage encoded no. 7 protein. Aberrant synthesis is also reflected in the increased read-through of termination codons during synthesis directed by phage RNAs harbouring amber mutations in the coat cistron. The rescue protein, purified from the parental strain, is able to complement the thermosensitive defect and restore proper synthesis. Biochemical characterization of the defect in the absence of rescue shows no detectable deficiency in the extent of initiation complex formation in reactions inhibited with sparsomycin. Peptidyltransferase is fully active as judged by the kinetics of formylmethionine-puromycin formation. However, rescue does exert an effect at the level of termination. In addition, the thermolability of the mutant can be reversed by dissociating 70S ribosomes into 30S and 50S subunits. Based on these and other observations, we propose tht rescue mediates a novel function in the association/dissociation of ribosomal subunits which is essential to the accuracy and efficiency of translation.