An Analogy for Mistranslating Cells, and the Benefits of This Mistranslation (IMAGE)
Caption
The easily angered sage Durvasa from Indian mythology is adapted here to represent mistranslating cells. The quiet sages on the left depict normal wild type cells, while the angry ones on the right are the short-fused 'Durvasas'. Like their namesake who is rather indiscriminate in his cursing and can, therefore, get into trouble, mistranslating cells incur a cost and are under-represented in the population. However, like Durvasa, they are well prepared to fend off attacks by prior accumulation of Lon protease (shown as yellow fireballs in the chest). In contrast, the quiet sages are not prepared (less Lon) and are likelier to be killed. The demon represents DNA damage, and leads to rapid SOS response activation from the mistranslating cells (thunderbolt thrown by the Durvasas) whereas the unprepared and quiet sages are slow to respond. The aftermath shows that mistranslating cells show higher survival than their wild type counterparts.
Credit
Pranjal Gupta
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Credit to be given to Pranjal Gupta
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