Eukaryotic Translation Termination

The arrival of any of the three stop codons (UAA, UAG and UGA) into the ribosomal A-site triggers the binding of a release factor (RF) to the ribosome and subsequent polypeptide chain release. In eukaryotes, the RF is composed of two proteins, eRF1 and eRF3. eRF1 is responsible for the hydrolysis of the peptidyl-tRNA, while eRF3 provides a GTP-dependent function. The ribosome releases the mRNA and dissociates into its two complex subunits, which can reassemble on another molecule to begin a new round of protein synthesis. It should be noted that at present, there is no factor identified in eukaryotes that would be the functional equivalent of the bacterial ribosome release (or recycling) factor, RRF, that catalyzes dissociation of the ribosome from the mRNA following release of the polypeptide

Summary from Reactome (R-HSA-72764), read 2026-09-23.