Shine–Dalgarno sequence

Common card · No. 434207

The Shine–Dalgarno (SD) sequence is, sometimes partially, part of a ribosomal binding site in bacterial and archaeal messenger RNA. It is generally located around 8 bases upstream of the start codon AUG. The RNA sequence helps recruit the ribosome to the messenger RNA (mRNA) to initiate protein synthesis by aligning the ribosome with the start codon. Once recruited, tRNA may add amino acids in sequence as dictated by the codons, moving downstream from the translational start site. The Shine–Dalgarno sequence is common in bacteria, but rarer in archaea. It is also present in some chloroplast and mitochondrial transcripts. The six-base consensus sequence is AGGAGG; in Escherichia coli, for example, the sequence is AGGAGGU, while the shorter GAGG dominates in E. coli virus T4 early genes. The Shine–Dalgarno sequence was proposed by Australian scientists John Shine and Lynn Dalgarno in 1973.

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