Translation Mechanisms provides investigators and graduate students with overviews of recent developments in the field of protein biosynthesis that are fuelled by the explosive and synergic growth of structural biology, genomics, and bioinformatics. The outstanding progress in our understanding of the structure, dynamics, and evolution of the prokaryotic and eukaryotic translation machinery, as well as applications in medicine and biotechnology, are described in 26 chapters covering recent discoveries on: -the subtleties of tRNA aminoacylation with natural and unnatural amino acids. -the control of mRNA stability, a key step of gene regulation. -ribosome structure and function, in the era of the atomic-crystal resolution of the ribosome. -the regulation of the biosynthesis of the translational machinery components. -the action of a variety of inhibitors of translation and the prospect for clinical studies.