Global Identification of Co-Translational Interaction Networks by Selective Ribosome Profiling

In recent years, it has become evident that ribosomes not only decode our mRNA but also guide the emergence of the polypeptide chain into the crowded cellular environment. Ribosomes provide the platform for spatially and kinetically controlled binding of membrane-targeting factors, modifying enzymes, and folding chaperones. Even the assembly into high-order oligomeric complexes, as well as protein-protein network formation steps, were recently discovered to be coordinated with synthesis. Here, we describe Selective Ribosome Profiling, a method developed to capture co-translational interactions in vivo. We will detail the various affinity purification steps required for capturing ribosome-nascent-chain complexes together with co-translational interactors, as well as the mRNA extraction, size exclusion, reverse transcription, deep-sequencing, and big-data analysis steps, required to decipher co-translational interactions in near-codon resolution.