I use the budding yeast Saccaromyces cerevesiae to study mechanisms of
translational regulation. As the rate-limiting step in the translation of a
message, translation initiation is a well-characterized target of gene
expression regulation. Sitting at the center of initiation is a large
scaffolding protein, eIF4G, that serves to bring together a number of factors
whose interactions are necessary for efficient translation. Interestingly, two
isoforms of this protein are conserved across eukaryotes. Despite their central
role in initiation, and some pre-existing biochemical data highlighting
unique characteristics of the two isoforms, the specific role that
each isoform plays in translational control remains a mystery. My
work focuses on determining the contribution each isoform makes to the
translation of the yeast genome, and on characterizing isoform specific
regulatory mechanisms, with the intention of uncovering mechanisms of
stress-induced translational repression and the subsequent selective
translation of messages required for stress adaptation.
