Ribosome profiling the cell cycle: lessons and challenges

Understanding the causes and consequences of dynamic changes in the abundance and activity of cellular components during cell division is what most cell cycle studies are about. Here we focus on control of gene expression in the cell cycle at the level of translation. The advent of deep sequencing methodologies led to technologies that quantify the levels of all mRNAs that are bound by ribosomes and engaged in translation in the cell (Ingolia et al. Science 324:218–223, 2009). This approach has been applied recently to synchronous cell populations to find transcripts under translational control at different cell cycle phases (Blank et al. EMBO J 36:487–502, 2017; Stumpf et al. Mol Cell 52:574–582, 2013; Tanenbaum et al. Elife 4:e07957, 2015). These studies revealed new biology, but they also have limitations, pointing to challenges that need to be addressed in the future.