Ribosome Structure

Ribosome structure

A ribosome is a vast assembly consisting of proteins and RNAs. The molecular mass adds up to approximately 2.5 MDa, and it is the largest asymmetric entity whose structure has been solved in human history. The first step of X-ray structure analysis is to acquire wellordered crystals of the target material. Generally speaking, crystallization becomes more difficult as the size of the molecule in...

RNA structure: reading the ribosome.

The crystal structures of the ribosome and its subunits have increased the amount of information about RNA structure by about two orders of magnitude. This is leading to an understanding of the principles of RNA folding and of the molecular interactions that underlie the functional capabilities of the ribosome and other RNA systems. Nearly all of the possible types of RNA tertiary interactions ...

Modeling the structure of the ribosome.

Considering the size and complexity of the ribosome and the growing body of data from a wide range of experiments on ribosomal structure, it is becoming increasingly important to develop tools that facilitate the development of reliable models for the ribosome. We use a combination of manual and computer-based approaches for building and refining models of the ribosome and other RNA-protein com...

Unraveling the strUctUre of the ribosome

Comprehensive molecular structure of the eukaryotic ribosome.

Despite the emergence of a large number of X-ray crystallographic models of the bacterial 70S ribosome over the past decade, an accurate atomic model of the eukaryotic 80S ribosome is still not available. Eukaryotic ribosomes possess more ribosomal proteins and ribosomal RNA than do bacterial ribosomes, which are implicated in extraribosomal functions in the eukaryotic cells. By combining cryo-...