Measuring mRNA Translation by Polysome Profiling

Determination of mRNA translation rates is essential to understanding the regulatory pathways governing eukaryotic gene expression. In this chapter, we present a transcriptome-wide method to assess translation by association of mRNAs with polysomes on sucrose density gradients. After sedimentation, the fractions are spiked with a control RNA mixture and the RNA content is measured by high-throughput sequencing. Normalization to the spike-ins provides a global quantitative view on the translational status of cellular mRNAs, with the ability to measure changes and identify active and silent subpopulations of each.