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Structural biology

Moulding the ribosome

Nature volume 537, pages 38–40 (2016)Cite this article

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Production of the cell's translational apparatus, the ribosome, requires the orchestrated function of hundreds of proteins. A structure of its earliest precursor yields unprecedented insight into ribosome formation.

In every living cell, a large macromolecular complex called the ribosome is responsible for translating messenger RNA into amino-acid chains in the cytoplasm. A mature ribosome contains about 80 ribosomal proteins (r-proteins) and four ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs). Yet the construction of a ribosome is mediated by many more proteins and RNA molecules within large dynamic pre-ribosomal complexes. Writing in Cell, Kornprobst et al.1 report that they have exploited advances in cryo-electron microscopy2 to resolve the structure of the earliest pre-ribosome, the 90S, to a near-atomic resolution of between 4 and 7 ångströms. The structure reveals, for the first time and in stunning detail, the arrangement of and interactions between many proteins that have been implicated in ribosome assembly, shedding light on a crucial step in early ribosome formation.

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Figure 1: Maturation of the 90S pre-ribosome.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Marlene Oeffinger is in the Department for Systems Biology, Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec H2W 1R7, Canada.,

    Marlene Oeffinger

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  1. Marlene Oeffinger
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Correspondence to Marlene Oeffinger.

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Oeffinger, M. Moulding the ribosome. Nature 537, 38–40 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/537038a

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