Forcing the ribosome to change its message

Mechanical forces can be generated when nascent protein segments are integrated into a membrane. These forces are then transmitted through the nascent protein to the ribosome’s catalytic core, but only a few biological consequences of this process have been identified to date. In this issue, Harrington et al. present evidence that these forces form a conserved mechanism to influence the efficiency of ribosomal frameshifting during translation of viral RNA, indicating that mechanical forces may play a broader regulatory role in translation than previously appreciated.