Eukaryotic initiation factor 4B and the poly(A)-binding protein bind eIF4G competitively

The eukaryotic translation initiation factor (eIF) 4G functions as a scaffold protein that assembles components of the translation initiation complex required to recruit the 40S ribosomal subunit to an mRNA. Although many eukaryotes express two highly similar eIF4G isoforms, those in plants are highly divergent in size and sequence from one another and are referred to as eIF4G and eIFiso4G. Although the domain organization of eIFiso4G differs substantially from eIF4G orthologs in other species, the domain organization of plant eIF4G is largely unknown despite the fact that it is more similar in size and sequence to eIF4G of other eukaryotes. In this study, we show that eIF4G differs from eIFiso4G in that it contains two distinct interaction domains for the poly(A) binding protein (PABP) and eIF4B but is similar to eIFiso4G in having two eIF4A interaction domains. PABP and eIF4B bind the same N-terminal region of eIF4G as they do to a region C-proximal to the HEAT-1 domain in the middle domain of eIF4G, resulting in competitive binding between eIF4B and PABP to each site. eIF4G also differs from eIFiso4G in that no competitive binding was observed between PABP and eIF4A or between eIF4B and eIF4A to its HEAT-1-containing region. These results demonstrate that despite substantial differences in size, sequence, and domain organization, PABP and eIF4B bind to eIF4G and eIFiso4G competitively.