Inhibition of ribosome recruitment induces stress granule formation independently of eukaryotic initiation factor 2α phosphorylation

Cytoplasmic aggregates known as stress granules (SGs) arise as a consequence of cellular stress and contain stalled translation preinitiation complexes. These foci are thought to serve as sites of mRNA storage or triage during the cell stress response. SG formation has been shown to require induction of eukaryotic initiation factor (elF)2 alpha phosphorylation. Herein, we investigate the potential role of other initiation factors in this process and demonstrate that interfering with eIF4A activity, an RNA helicase required for the ribosome recruitment phase of translation initiation, induces SG formation and that this event is not dependent on eIF2 alpha phosphorylation. We also show that inhibition of eIF4A activity does not impair the ability of eIF2 alpha to be phosphorylated under stress conditions. Furthermore, we observed SG assembly upon inhibition of cap-dependent translation after poliovirus infection. We propose that SG modeling can occur via both eIF2 alpha phosphorylation-dependent and -independent pathways that target translation initiation.