RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 A combinatorial model predicts leaderless mRNA start codon selection in C. crescentus JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 2020.05.06.081141 DO 10.1101/2020.05.06.081141 A1 Mohammed-Husain M. Bharmal A1 Jared M. Schrader YR 2020 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/05/08/2020.05.06.081141.abstract AB Bacterial translation is thought to initiate by base-pairing of the 16S rRNA and the Shine-Dalgarno sequence in the mRNA’s 5’ UTR. However, transcriptomics has revealed that leaderless mRNAs, which completely lack any 5’ UTR, are broadly distributed across bacteria and can initiate translation in the absence of the Shine-Dalgarno sequence. To investigate the mechanism of leaderless mRNA translation initiation, synthetic in vivo translation reporters were designed that systematically tested the effects of start codon accessibility, leader length, and start codon identity on leaderless mRNA translation initiation. Using this data, a simple computational model was built based on the combinatorial relationship of these mRNA features which can accurately classify leaderless mRNAs and predict the translation initiation efficiency of leaderless mRNAs. Thus, start codon accessibility, leader length, and start codon identity combine to define leaderless mRNA translation initiation in bacteria.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.