ribosome, protein elongation cycle, tRNAs, enzymology, chemical kinetics, queueing time theory, stochasticity
Abstract :
[en] Ribosomal elongation rates on mRNAs are inherently stochastic, with codon-specific dwell times shaped by multiple kinetic factors. Variability arises primarily from tRNA selection, accommodation, and kinetic proofreading, during which cognate, near-cognate, and non-cognate tRNAs are sampled from the intracellular pool. These processes are described within a mechano-chemical framework grounded in transition state theory, capturing the energetics of codon–anticodon recognition and possibly affected by enzymatic modifications in the anti-codon loop of tRNAs. To quantitatively characterize translational heterogeneity, queueing theory is applied to derive probability distributions of ribosome dwell times, providing a statistical description of codon-dependent elongation kinetics.
