Translational apparatus of microorganisms at low temperature

Temperature up-shift or down-shift is one of the major environmental stresses encountered by microorganisms. Especially, one of the main consequences of temperature down-shift on cells is conformational changes of secondary structures of RNAs. These cold-shock induced structural changes of RNAs have significant effect on the global gene expressions, i) by improper termination of transcription, ii) inefficient RNA degradation, iii) translation of alternatively-structured mRNAs, and iv) biogenesis of ribosome and processing of rRNA. Several cold-shock proteins are produced to counteract these effects and thus allow cold acclimatization of the cell. This chapter describes how specific cold shock proteins modulate the ribosome biogenesis and eventually translation, to ensure effective protein production at low temperature.