Question

EF-Tu, a member of the G-protein family, plays a crucial role in the elongation process of translation. Suppose that a slowly hydrolyzable analog of GTP was added to an elongating system. What would be the effect on the rate of protein synthesis?

Answer 1

The EF-Tu in general during the translation elongation, uses a GTP protein to first form a peptide bond between the aminoacyl tRNA in P-site and newly added aminoacyl tRNA in the A-site on the ribosome by hydrolyses of the GTP to GDP and Pi to gain the energy required to form the peptide bond between them. If a slowly hydrolysable analog of GTP was added to an elongating system, then the rate of protein synthesis will be slowed down as the formation of peptide bond takes more time and hence elongation of the protein also happens slowly thereby increasing the time required to synthesise the whole protein.

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