ArticleNature communications2026
Extended Shine-Dalgarno motifs govern translation initiation in Staphylococcus aureus.
Article in Nature communications, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- A Zur-dependent regulatory RNA involved in maintaining zinc homeostasis in Staphylococcus aureus.Nucleic acids research · 2026Article
- Comprehensive post-transcriptional modification profiles in individual Staphylococcus aureus tRNA species.Nucleic acids research · 2026Article
- Translation initiation by the Kozak mRNA sequence is based on a conformational readout on the ribosome.Nature communications · 2026Article
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Authors and funding
10 authors.
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Abstract
Regulation of translation initiation is central to bacterial adaptation, but species-specific mechanisms remain poorly understood. We present high-resolution mapping of translation start sites in Staphylococcus aureus, revealing distinct features of initiation alongside numerous unannotated small ORFs. Our analysis, combined with cryo-EM of a native mRNA-ribosome complex, shows that S. aureus relies on extended, start codon proximal Shine-Dalgarno (SD) interactions, creating specificity against phylogenetically distant bacteria. Several natural S. aureus initiation sites are not correctly decoded by E. coli ribosomes. We identify new and conserved non-canonical start codons, whose regulatory initiation sites contain these characteristic extended SD sequence motifs. Finally, we characterize a novel example of uORF-mediated translational control in S. aureus, demonstrating that translation of a small leader peptide modulates expression of a key biofilm regulator. The described mechanism involves codon rarity, ribosome pausing, and arginine availability, linking nutrient sensing to biofilm formation in this major human pathogen.
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