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Volume 505 Issue 7484, 23 January 2014

Abstract representation of the complex folds of the protein and RNA components of the large subunit of the mammalian mitochondrial ribosome, by Basil Greber after Keith Haring. The mitochondria that power eukaryotic cells via aerobic respiration originated from prokaryotes and contain a much-reduced genome that encodes a number of RNA molecules and a very limited subset of mitochondrial proteins. The mitochondrial ribosomes, or mitoribosomes, of mammalian cells are highly specialized for the translation of membrane proteins of the respiratory chain. Nenad Ban and colleagues have solved the three-dimensional structure of the large 39S mitoribosomal subunit by cryoelectron microscopy to 4.9 å resolution. Their images provide detailed insights into the considerable changes that have occurred in this ribosome, presumably to help facilitate translation of the very hydrophobic proteins encoded by the mitochondrial genome. Cover: Basil Greber

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