Constraints on the accuracy of messenger RNA movement

SUMMARY Theoretical as well as experimental studies of translational accuracy have most often been concerned with the selection of aminoacyl-tRNA by codon-programmed ribosomes. The selection of the successive codons on the mRNA has received much less attention, probably because it represents both conceptually and experimentally, a much more demanding physical problem. Nevertheless, it would seem that errors in the selection of the codon are potentially much more destructive than errors in selection of aminoacyl-tRNA species. This can be appreciated from the following.