Co-Translational Events or the First Moments in the Life of Protein

Abstract

Proteins are biopolymers composed of amino acids. Proteins play a role almost in all processes in living organisms. In cells, proteins are synthesized on ribosomes in a process called translation, where amino acids are connected one at a time by a chemical bond according to a pre-defined scenario stored as the genetic information. Relative to their lifetime, proteins spend non-negligible time attached to the ribosome. This review focuses on phenomena that involve a nascent protein before it is released from the ribosome, i.e., in the first moments of their own synthesis, co-translationally. The text partly covers a lecture given by the author at the Summer School for High School Teachers and Students organized by UCT Prague in August 2021.