Elongation factors

Elongation factors are a set of proteins that facilitate the synthesis of protein in ribosomes during the process of translation. They are part of the larger group of protein biosynthesis factors.

Function

Elongation factors play a crucial role in the elongation phase of protein biosynthesis. They assist in the synthesis of the polypeptide chain by adding amino acids to the growing chain. This process continues until a stop codon is reached on the mRNA molecule.

There are three main types of elongation factors:

• EF-Tu (or EF1 in eukaryotes): This factor binds to an aminoacyl-tRNA (a tRNA molecule with an amino acid attached) and brings it to the A site of the ribosome.
• EF-Ts (or EF1B in eukaryotes): This factor regenerates EF-Tu in bacteria after it has delivered its aminoacyl-tRNA to the ribosome.
• EF-G (or EF2 in eukaryotes): This factor promotes the translocation of the tRNA and mRNA down the ribosome at the end of each round of polypeptide elongation.

Role in Disease

Mutations in elongation factors can lead to various diseases. For example, mutations in the EF2 gene have been associated with cancer and neurodegenerative diseases.

See Also

• Translation (biology)
• Protein biosynthesis
• Ribosome
• Amino acid
• mRNA
• tRNA
• EF-Tu
• EF-Ts
• EF-G

References

Elongation factors Resources
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