Ribosome-Associated Quality Control: How Cells Detect and Cope with Failed Translation Reactions

Protein production by the ribosome is an essential process that accounts for nearly 50% of the energy demand in rapidly dividing cells. This complex process is not perfect and can be perturbed by various factors such as defects on the mRNA or the ribosome, starvation, stress, and others. If protein synthesis stops before the ribosome reaches a stop codon, the cell needs to employ a network of quality control factors that release the stalled ribosome, degrade the mRNA and the partially synthesized polypeptide. In eukaryotes this surveillance system is collectively called Ribosome Quality Control (RQC), and in this review we will focus on the function, targets, and evolution of RQC from yeast to human.