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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2009 Nov 12.
Published in final edited form as: J Mol Struct. 2008 Nov 12;890(1-3):289–294. doi: 10.1016/j.molstruc.2008.03.043

Figure 1.

Figure 1

Functional mobility of the ribosomal subunits:

a. The interface surfaces of the high resolution structures of the small (left) and the large (right) ribosomal subunits from Thermus thermophilus, T30S [2] and Deinococcus radiodurans, D50S [4], respectively, with their main structural regions. The approximate mRNA channel on the small subunit and the positions of the three tRNA sites on both subunits are shown, with a representative tRNA molecule placed between the two subunits, showing the regions interacting with each of the subunits.

b. An enlarged view of the small subunit indicating its functionally relevant motions (the two arrows), the position of the latch (indicated by L) , participating actively in mRNA attachment; and the single RNA chain called neck (shown as “N”) that seems to act as the structural element facilitating the “head” motions, which involved in opening/closing the latch. The pink circle indicates the position that closes and opens during the latch motion, for creating a pore for the incoming mRNA.

c-e. rRNA backbone representation of the small subunit. The body, shown in red, is almost identical in all known crystal structures, whereas various “head” folds have been detected and are shown in different colors. (Red: the tungstenated T30S structure [2]; pink and wheat: the two traceable folds among the ensemble of conformations existing in the T30S low resolution crystals; cyan and green: the two conformations existing in the crystal of the entire ribosome from E. coli, E70S [5]; grey and blue: the fold of functional complexes of the entire ribosome from Thermus thermophilus, T70S [9] and [10], respectively. The T30S non-tungstenated structure [3] is almost identical to that observed in [9], therefore is shown in grey).

d. Shows the assembly of structured observed in the low resolution crystal form of T30S.

Inserted is the 7A resolution structure of T30S [75] that shows clearly the structural domains and the possible motions (indicated by arrows). The left red circle indicates the position of the latch and the right circle is positioned on the neck.