Eukaryotic Ribosomes Misincorporate One Amino Acid for Every 1,000-10,000, Whereas

Essay

Eukaryotic ribosomes misincorporate one amino acid for every 1,000-10,000, whereas the eukaryotic replication machinery misincorporates one nucleotide for every ~1x10⁷, a number which goes down to ~1x10⁹ following activity of the mismatch repair machinery. (a) Why can the cell tolerate a higher rate of error in translation than in replication? (b) Besides errors that occur in the ribosome, what is another potential source of error in protein synthesis?