Dealing with stable structures at ribosome binding sites: bacterial translation and ribosome standby

Bacterial ribosomes have great difficulties to initiate translation on stable structures within mRNAs. Translational coupling and induced structure changes are strategies to open up inhibitory RNA structures encompassing ribosome binding sites (RBS). There are, however, mRNAs in which stable structures are not unfolded, but that are nevertheless efficiently initiated at high rates. de Smit and van Duin(1) proposed a "ribosome standby" model to theoretically solve this paradox: the 30S ribosome binds nonspecifically to an accessible site on the mRNA (standby site), waiting for a transient opening of a stable RBS hairpin. Upon unfolding, the 30S subunit relocates to form a productive initiation complex. Recent reports have provided experimental support for this model. This review will describe and compare two different flavors of standby sites, their properties, and their likely implications. We also discuss the possibility that ribosome standby may be a more general strategy to obtain high translation rates.