Cryo-electron microscopy study of translation initiation complexes from Staphylococcus aureus

Protein synthesis, also called mRNA translation, is a conserved process in all living cells. It can be divided into 4 main steps: initiation, elongation, termination and recycling.Translation initiation is a highly regulated step that has several features unique to gram-positive bacteria. One example of gram-positive bacteria is a human pathogen Staphylococcus aureus that causes several nosocomial infections and develops resistance to most commonly used antibiotics. Often, the ribosome is the target of antibiotics that can act at the translation initiation step. This step in S. aureus has its own characteristics like the absence of r-protein S1, extension of the helix 26 of 16S rRNA, special virulence mRNAs and possibly other features affecting protein synthesis. As a result, obtained structures of the initiation complexes will help in gaining deeper insight on the species- specific features of protein synthesis of this bacterium.The knowledge gained during my work will be used in further research and willhopefully contribute to the fight against this pathogen.