Organ-specific translation elongation rates measured by in vivo ribosome profiling

Abstract

Protein synthesis and degradation are intricate biological processes involving more than a hundred proteins operating in a highly orches-trated fashion. Despite the progress, few options are available to access translation in live animals as the increase in animal’s complexity limits the repertoire of experimental tools that could be applied to observe and manipulate processes within animal’s body, organs, and individual cells. It this study, we developed a labeling-free method for measuring organ- and cell-type specific translation elongation rates. It is based on a time-resolved delivery of translation initiation and elongation inhibitors in live animals followed by ribosome profiling. It also reports translation initiation sites in an organ-specific manner. Using this method, we found that the elongation rates differ among mouse organs and determined them to be 6.8, 5.2, and 4.4 amino acids per sec for liver, kidney, and skeletal muscle, respectively.SignificanceProtein synthesis is a vital biological process. Modern methods of genome editing enable generation of sophisticated animal models to study the regulation of protein synthesis in health end disease. However, the methods that could track various steps of translation at a gene level resolution in vivo are lacking, particularly in complex vertebrates, such as mice and rats. Here, we measured the translation elongation rate in several organs by delivering inhibitors specific to certain phases of translation directly through the mouse bloodstream. This study lays out a path for interrogating translation in animals in response to various genetic and dietary interventions.