mRNA toeprinting JD366-18 mRNA (1 mg in 8 ml) was annealed with 2 ml of 3 0 end-labeled toeprinting primer (5 0 -CGTACGTGATCTTCA-CC-3 0 , complementary to sequence 240 bp 3 0 of the slippery site) as described above. This was added to 15 ml of lysate (200 ml Ambion retic lysate, 7.5 ml of each master mix [Àleu and Àmet] and 70 ml of 250 mM KCl), except for 2 ml, which was added to 15 ml of RT buffer [50 mM Tris-HCl (25), 40 mM KCl, 6 mM MgCl 2 , 5 mM DTT and 575 mM dNTPs] to be used as a no-ribosome control. In vitro translation reactions were incubated at room temperature for 10 min, which was empirically determined to provide the optimum amount of time to allow ribosomes to initiate translation and pause at the frameshift signal. Subsequently, 15 ml of RT buffer containing RNasin inhibitor and cycloheximide (to a final concentration of 100 ng/ml) was added to stop translation. To this, 2 ml of Superscript II (Invitrogen) was added and the reaction incubated at room temperature for 10 min. Reactions were terminated by phenol:chloroform extraction and 15 ml of stop solution added. The toeprinting primer was also used in conjunction with pJD366-18 to produce sequencing ladders by standard dideoxynucleotide chain termination methods using Sequenase (USB). Products were separated though 6% polyacrylamide-urea denaturing gels and visualized using a Storm phosphorImager (Pharmacia).