As a central node of
protein synthesis, the cap-binding complex, eukaryotic translation
initiation factor 4 F (
eIF4F), is involved in cell homeostasis, development and
tumorigenesis. A large body of literature exists on the regulation and function of
eIF4F in
cancer cells, however the intracellular localization patterns of this complex are largely unknown. Since different subsets of mRNAs are translated in distinct subcellular compartments, understanding the distribution of translation
initiation factors in the cell is of major interest. Here, we developed an in situ detection method for
eIF4F at the single cell level. By using an image-based spot feature analysis pipeline as well as supervised machine learning, we identify five distinct spatial patterns of the
eIF4F translation initiation complex in human
melanoma cells. The quantity of
eIF4F complex per cell correlated with the global mRNA translation activity, and its variation is dynamically regulated by cell state or extracellular stimuli. In contrast, the spatial patterns of
eIF4F complexes at the single cell level could distinguish
melanoma cells harboring different oncogenic driver mutations. This suggests that different tumorigenic contexts differentially regulate the subcellular localization of mRNA translation, with specific localization of
eIF4F potentially associated with
melanoma cell chemoresistance.