Nono Takeuchi-Tomita

Mammalian mitochondria have their own dedicated protein synthesis system, which produces 13 essential subunits of the oxidative phosphorylation complexes. We have reconstituted an in vitro translation system from mammalian mitochondria, utilizing purified recombinant mitochondrial translation factors, 55S ribosomes from pig liver mitochondria, and a tRNA mixture from either Escherichia coli or yeast. The system is capable of translating leaderless mRNAs encoding model proteins (DHFR and nanoLuci

The stress-related protein Stm1 interacts with ribosomes, and is implicated in repressing translation. Stm1 was previously studied both in vivo and in vitro by cell-free translation systems using crude yeast lysates, but its precise functional mechanism remains obscure. Using an in vitro reconstituted translation system, we now show that Stm1 severely inhibits translation through its N-terminal region, aa 1 to 107, and this inhibition is antagonized by eEF3. We found that Stm1 stabilizes eEF2 on

We developed an in vitro translation system from yeast, reconstituted with purified translation elongation and termination factors and programmed by CrPV IGR IRES-containing mRNA, which functions in the absence of initiation factors. The system is capable of synthesizing the active reporter protein, nanoLuciferase, with a molecular weight of 19 kDa. The protein synthesis by the system is appropriately regulated by controlling its composition, including translation factors, amino acids and antibi

We have recently developed an in vitro yeast reconstituted translation system, which is capable of synthesizing long polypeptides. Utilizing the system, we examined the role of eIF5A and its hypusine modification in translating polyproline sequence within long open reading frames. We found that polyproline motif inserted at the internal position of the protein arrests translation exclusively at low Mg2+ concentrations, and peptidylpolyproline-tRNA intrinsically destabilizes 80S ribosomes. We dem

The rates of translation elongation or termination in eukaryotes are modulated through cooperative molecular interactions involving mRNA, the ribosome, aminoacyl- and nascent polypeptidyl-tRNAs, and translation factors. To investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying these processes, we developed an in vitro translation system from yeast, reconstituted with purified translation elongation and termination factors, utilizing CrPV IGR IRES-containing mRNA, which functions in the absence of initi