Substitution of the conserved Histidine 448 present in one of the three consensus elements characterizing the guanosine nucleotide binding domain (IF2 G2) of Escherichia coli translation initiation factor IF2 resulted in impaired ribosome-dependent GTPase activity which prevented IF2 dissociation from the ribosome, caused a severe protein synthesis inhibition, and yielded a dominant lethal phenotype. A reduced IF2 affinity for the ribosome was previously shown to suppress this lethality. Here, we demonstrate that also a reduced IF2 affinity for fMet-tRNA can suppress this dominant lethal phenotype and allows IF2 to support faithful translation in the complete absence of GTP hydrolysis. These results strengthen the premise that the conformational changes of ribosome, IF2, and fMet-tRNA occurring during the late stages of translation initiation are thermally driven and that the energy generated by IF2-dependent GTP hydrolysis is not required for successful translation initiation and that the dissociation of the interaction between IF2 C2 and the acceptor end of fMet-tRNA, which represents the last tie anchoring the factor to the ribosome before the formation of an elongation-competent 70S complex, is rate limiting for both the adjustment of fMet-tRNA in a productive P site and the IF2 release from the ribosome.
Keywords: GTP hydrolysis; bacterial translation initiation; dominant lethal phenotype; initiation factor IF2; lethality suppression.