Special Seminar - Sophia Rudorf: Predicting the dynamics of mRNA translation

Abstract (auf Englisch):

Protein synthesis by ribosomes is a non-uniform and complex multistep process that includes numerous individual transitions of the involved molecules. The rates of these transitions have been measured in vitro over the past decades. To model translation inside living cells, we developed a general method that is able to predict in-vivo transition rates from their in-vitro counterparts. We incorporated the predicted in-vivo transition rates into an analytical theory, which describes protein synthesis as a stochastic process and takes major aspects of in-vivo translation into account. We apply our theory for example to determine the global and local speed and accuracy of protein synthesis; to find mRNA sequences for optimized protein expression; to assess the efficiency of co-translational protein complex assembly; or to study the kinetics of early in-vitro protein synthesis.