The Pre-initiation Complex Flow Model

tamirtul@post.tau.ac.il

mRNA translation is a research topic which is undergoing intense study over the recent years. Accurate modeling of translation should contribute to every biomedical discipline. Today, there exist some biophysical models for describing the flow of ribosomes along the mRNA after the initiation step; however, there are no accurate comprehensive biophysical models for simulating and predicting the translation initiation step.

We have developed a model which describes movement of the small subunit of the ribosome along the 5’UTR, and is based on the biophysical nature of the process. We demonstrate how this model enables us to: 1) infer the initiation rate for the translation process; 2) understand the dynamic of the initiation step; 3) integrated into more comprehensive models of translation.