Elimination of ribosome inactivating factors improves the efficiency of and cell-free translation systems

Cell-free translation systems based on cellular lysates optimized for protein synthesis have multiple applications both in basic and applied science, ranging from studies of translational regulation to cell-free production of proteins and ribosome-nascent chain complexes. In order to achieve both high activity and reproducibility in a translation system, it is essential that the ribosomes in the cellular lysate are enzymatically active. Here we demonstrate that genomic disruption of genes encoding ribosome inactivating factors - HPF in and Stm1 in - robustly improve the activities of bacterial and yeast translation systems. Importantly, the elimination of HPF results in a complete loss of 100S ribosomes, which otherwise interfere with disome-based approaches for preparation of stalled ribosomal complexes for cryo-electron microscopy studies.