Avoiding Ribosome Traffic Jams

Optimization of protein synthesis for efficiency is thought to be highly important for evolutionary fitness. Watch and listen as Yitzhak Pilpel and Tamir Tuller take you on a brief, personalized tour of their findings that mRNA codons are distributed along the length of the message in a manner that modulates ribosome speed during translation. The ribosome traffic pattern generated by conserved codon distribution might minimize cellular energy expenditure.