Novel Insights into Gene Expression Regulation during Meiosis Revealed by Translation Elongation Dynamics

Numerous studies have demonstrated the critical role of translational control in the dynamic regulation of protein synthesis. However, most of them suggested that the elongation phase is not regulated in a condition-specific manner and is rather `static`. Here, we employ novel computational approaches applied to ribosome profiling data to estimate for the first time the distinct changes in translation elongation and initiation at multiple time points during yeast meiosis. We show that codon decoding rates and thus mRNAs elongation rates change dynamically and substantially during meiosis to facilitate the translation of transcripts whose proteins are required at specific time points. Our approach captured a unique elongation pattern at the onset of anaphase II that was invisible to previous translational analyses. Particularly, we identified a large cluster of lowly expressed genes involved in sister chromatid segregation that showed a strong temporal shift toward increased elongation efficiency precisely when these processes occurred. Also at this time point, we found that the elongation of the ribosomal proteins is decreased but their initiation is maintained to promote the translation of these anaphase II genes. Our analysis provides new insights into gene expression regulation during meiosis and demonstrates a functional role of translation elongation dynamics.