Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-27-2012
Abstract
Translation of mRNA into proteins by the ribosome is universally conserved in all cellular life. The composition and complexity of the translation machinery differ markedly between the three domains of life. Organisms from the domain Archaea show an intermediate level of complexity, sharing several additional components of the translation machinery with eukaryotes that are absent in bacteria. One of these translation factors is initiation factor 6 (IF6), which associates with the large ribosomal subunit. We have reconstructed the 50S ribosomal subunit from the archaeon Methanothermobacter thermautotrophicus in complex with archaeal IF6 at 6.6 Å resolution using cryo-electron microscopy (EM). The structure provides detailed architectural insights into the 50S ribosomal subunit from a methanogenic archaeon through identification of the rRNA expansion segments and ribosomal proteins that are shared between this archaeal ribosome and eukaryotic ribosomes but are mostly absent in bacteria and in some archaeal lineages. Furthermore, the structure reveals that, in spite of highly divergent evolutionary trajectories of the ribosomal particle and the acquisition of novel functions of IF6 in eukaryotes, the molecular binding of IF6 on the ribosome is conserved between eukaryotes and archaea. The structure also provides a snapshot of the reductive evolution of the archaeal ribosome and offers new insights into the evolution of the translation system in archaea.
Recommended Citation
Greber, B.J., Boehringer, D, Godinic-Mikulcic, V., Crnkovic, A., Ibba, M., Weygand-Durasevic, I. and Ban, N. (2012) Cryo-EM Structure of the Archaeal 50S Ribosomal Subunit in Complex with Initiation Factor 6 and Implications for Ribosome Evolution. J. Mol. Biol. 418, 145-160. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmb.2012.01.018
Copyright
Elsevier
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Included in
Amino Acids, Peptides, and Proteins Commons, Biochemistry Commons, Cellular and Molecular Physiology Commons, Molecular Biology Commons, Nucleic Acids, Nucleotides, and Nucleosides Commons, Other Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology Commons
Comments
This article was originally published in Journal of Molecular Biology, volume 418, in 2012. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmb.2012.01.018