Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2003 May-Jun;95(3-4):195-209.
doi: 10.1016/s0248-4900(03)00035-2.

Eukaryotic release factors (eRFs) history

Sergei Inge-Vechtomov  1 , Galina Zhouravleva, Michel Philippe
Affiliations
Review

Eukaryotic release factors (eRFs) history

Sergei Inge-Vechtomov et al. Biol Cell. 2003 May-Jun.

Abstract

In the present review, we describe the history of the identification of the eukaryotic translation termination factors eRF1 and eRF3. As in the case of several proteins involved in general and essential processes in all cells (e.g., DNA replication, gene expression regulation.) the strategies and methodologies used to identify these release factors were first established in prokaryotes. The genetic investigations in Saccharomyces cerevisiae have made a major contribution in the field. A large amount of data have been produced, from which it was concluded that the SUP45 and SUP35 genes were controlling translation termination but were also involved in other functions important for the cell organization and the cell cycle accomplishment. This does not seem to be restricted to yeast but is also probably the case in eukaryotes in general. The biochemical studies of the proteins encoded by the higher eukaryote homologs of SUP45 and SUP35 were efficient and permitted the identification of eRF1 as being the key protein in the termination process, eRF3 having a stimulating role. Around 25 years were needed after the identification of sup45 and sup35 mutants for the characterization of their gene products as eRF1 and eRF3, respectively. It also has to be pointed out that if the results came first from bacteria, the identification of RF3 and eRF3 was made practically at the same time. Moreover, eRF1 was the first crystal structure obtained for a class-1 release factor, the bacterial RF2 structure came later. The goal is now to understand at the molecular level the roles of both eRF1 and eRF3 in addition to their translation termination functions.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources