Frameshifting at collided ribosomes is modulated by elongation factor eEF3 and by Integrated Stress Response regulators Gcn1 and Gcn20

Abstract

Ribosome stalls can result in ribosome collisions that elicit quality control responses, one function of which is to prevent frameshifting by the stalled ribosome, an activity that entails interaction of the conserved yeast protein Mbf1 with uS3 on colliding ribosomes. However, the full spectrum of factors that mediate frameshifting during ribosome collisions is unknown. To delineate such factors in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, we used genetic selections for mutants that either suppress or increase frameshifting from a known ribosome stall site, CGA codon repeats. We show that the general translation elongation factor eEF3 promotes frameshifting, while Integrated Stress Response (ISR) pathway components Gcn1 and Gcn20 suppress frameshifting. We found a mutant form of eEF3 that specifically suppressed frameshifting, but not translation inhibition by CGA codons. Thus, we infer that frameshifting at collided ribosomes requires eEF3, which facilitates tRNA-mRNA translocation and E-site tRNA release in yeast and other single cell organisms. By contrast, we found that removal of either Gcn1 or Gcn20, which bind collided ribosomes with Mbf1, increased frameshifting. Thus, we conclude that frameshifting is suppressed by Gcn1 and Gcn20, although these effects are not mediated through activation of the ISR. Furthermore, we examined the relationship of eEF3-mediated frameshifting to other quality control mechanisms, finding that the eEF3-mediated frameshifting competes with No-Go decay, Mbf1 and Gcn1/20. Thus, these results provide evidence of a direct link between translation elongation and frameshifting at collided ribosomes, as well as evidence that frameshifting competes with other quality control pathways that act on collided ribosomes.