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Updated: Dec 14, 2025

Single Molecule Fluorescence Energy Transfer Study of Ribosome Protein Synthesis
Published on: July 6, 2021
Dynamics of ribosomes in mRNA translation under steady- and nonsteady-state conditions
Juraj Szavits-Nossan1, Martin R Evans1
1SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Peter Guthrie Tait Road, Edinburgh EH9 3FD, United Kingdom.
Abstract:
Recent advances in DNA sequencing and fluorescence imaging have made it possible to monitor the dynamics of ribosomes actively engaged in messenger RNA (mRNA) translation. Here, we model these experiments within the inhomogeneous totally asymmetric simple exclusion process (TASEP) using realistic kinetic parameters. In particular, we present analytic expressions to describe the following three cases: (a) translation of a newly transcribed mRNA, (b) translation in the steady state and, specifically, the dynamics of individual (tagged) ribosomes, and (c) runoff translation after inhibition of translation initiation. In cases (b) and (c) we develop an effective medium approximation to describe many-ribosome dynamics in terms of a single tagged ribosome in an effective medium. The predictions are in good agreement with stochastic simulations.
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