How protein reads the stop codon and terminates translation.

Translation termination requires two codon-specific protein-release factors in prokaryotes and one factor in eukaryotes. The underlying mechanism for stop codon recognition, as well as the biological meaning of the conservation of one or two release factors in the evolutionary kingdoms, are not known. The recent discovery of release factor genes and the molecular mimicry between translational factors and tRNA provide us with clues to the mechanisms of how proteins read the stop codon and terminate translation, shedding some light on the evolutionary aspect of release factors.