The influence of ribosome‐binding‐site elements on translational efficiency in Bacillus subtilis and Escherichia coli in vivo

Summary A method is described to determine simultaneously the effect of any changes in the ribosome‐binding site (RBS) of mRNA on translational efficiency in Bacillus subtilis and Escherichia coli in vivo. The approach was used to analyse systematically the influence of spacing between the Shine‐Dalgarno sequence and the initiation codon, the three different initiation codons, and RBS secondary structure on translational yields in the two organisms. Both B. subtilis and E. coli exhibited similar spacing optima of 7–9 nucleotides. However, B. subtilis translated messages with spacings shorter than optimal much less efficiently than E. coli. In both organisms, AUG was the preferred initiation codon by two‐ to threefold. In E coli GUG was slightly better than (JUG while in B. subtilis UUG was better than GUG. The degree of emphasis placed on initiation codon type, as measured by translational yield, was dependent on the strength of the Shine‐Dalgarno interaction in both organisms. B. subtilis v/as also much less able to tolerate secondary structure in the RBS than E. coli. While significant differences were found between the two organisms in the effect of specific RBS elements on translation, other mRNA components in addition to those elements tested appear to be responsible, in part, for translational species specificity. The approach described provides a rapid and systematic means of elucidating such additional determinants.