Mechanistic modeling of bacterial translation initiation across growth conditions
- 1Professorship for Systems Biotechnology
Abstract
Translation frequency in bacteria depends on how ribosomes, mRNAs, and initiation factors are allocated across growth conditions. Here, we developed a mechanistic ODE-based model of Escherichia coli translation that represents initiation, elongation, termination, and coupled auxiliary processes. Growth-dependent abundances were derived from physiological relationships and reprocessed omics data, and simulated outputs were compared with translation-frequency and active-ribosome references. The model predicts a continuous shift from complex-formation-limited toward ribosome-limited behavior as growth increases. This shift is characterized by a decline in free-ribosome abundance, whereas initiation-factor pools remain largely unbound and do not become depleted in parallel. Together with the implemented IF-dependent kinetic term, this preserved availability provides a model-internal route through which productive initiation can be maintained despite increasing ribosome utilization. Consistently, transcript-wide ribosome loading remains below its theoretical maximum, while COG-level simulations reveal distinct sector-specific translation-frequency trajectories. The study therefore provides a resource-allocation framework for interpreting how mRNA--ribosome interactions shape bacterial translation across growth conditions.
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BibTeX
@misc{qin2026mechanistic,
title = {{Mechanistic modeling of bacterial translation initiation across growth conditions}},
author = {J. Qin and A. Kremling},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.64898/2026.08.31.748211},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.31.748211v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Mechanistic modeling of bacterial translation initiation across growth conditions
AU - J. Qin
AU - A. Kremling
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/31
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.08.31.748211
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.31.748211v1
AB - Translation frequency in bacteria depends on how ribosomes, mRNAs, and initiation factors are allocated across growth conditions. Here, we developed a mechanistic ODE-based model of Escherichia coli translation that represents initiation, elongation, termination, and coupled auxiliary processes. Growth-dependent abundances were derived from physiological relationships and reprocessed omics data, and simulated outputs were compared with translation-frequency and active-ribosome references. The model predicts a continuous shift from complex-formation-limited toward ribosome-limited behavior as growth increases. This shift is characterized by a decline in free-ribosome abundance, whereas initiation-factor pools remain largely unbound and do not become depleted in parallel. Together with the implemented IF-dependent kinetic term, this preserved availability provides a model-internal route through which productive initiation can be maintained despite increasing ribosome utilization. Consistently, transcript-wide ribosome loading remains below its theoretical maximum, while COG-level simulations reveal distinct sector-specific translation-frequency trajectories. The study therefore provides a resource-allocation framework for interpreting how mRNA--ribosome interactions shape bacterial translation across growth conditions.
ER -