Sonenberg N. Toward a genome-wide landscape of translational control. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol

Genome-wide analysis of translational control has taken strides in recent years owing to the advent of high-throughput technologies, including DNA microarrays and deep sequencing. Global studies have unraveled a principal role, among posttranscriptional mechanisms, for mRNA translation in determining protein levels in the cell. The impact of translational control in dynamic regulation of the proteomeunder different conditions is increasinglyappreciated. Here we review genome-wide studies that use high-throughput techniques and bioinfor-matics to assess the role of mRNA translation in the regulation of protein levels; we also discuss howgenome-wide data onmRNA translation can be obtained, analyzed, and used to identify mechanisms of translational control. The gene expression pathway leading to pro-tein production consists of many mecha-nistic layers that are subject to regulation. They are commonly grouped into transcriptional or posttranscriptional types. Some posttranscrip-tional mechanisms, including RNA splicing, mRNA editing, and posttranslational modifica-tion, determine the identity and activity of the protein products, whereas others control pro-tein levels by regulating transport of mRNA from the nucleus to the cytoplasm, mRNA stability, translation, and protein stability. De-termining how posttranscriptional regulation contributes to protein levels and, more precise-ly, how regulation of translation impacts gene expression have attracted substantial attention during the last decade