Roles of Protein Synthesis Elongation Factor EF-Tu in Heat Tolerance in Plants

Figure 1

The role of EF-Tu in the elongation phase of protein synthesis. EF-Tu·GTP (binary complex) binds aminoacyl-tRNA to form a ternary complex of EF-Tu·GTP·aa-tRNA, which leads to the codon-dependent placement of this aminoacyl-tRNA at the A site of the ribosome. Correct codon-anticodon pairing activates the GTPase centre of the ribosome, which causes GTP hydrolysis, change in EF-Tu conformation and release of the EF-Tu·GDP from aminoacyl end of the tRNA. EF-Ts (elongation factor Ts) facilitates the exchange of EF-Tu-bound GDP for GTP.