Figure 3.

Secondary structure of T. thermophilus 16S rRNA highlighting the details of each pivoting element. The stem sequences that were superimposed are highlighted in black. Pivoting elements are shown in red and final stems are shown in green. Helices 29 and 34 are considered to be final helices by our definition of a pivot, even though they are internal. They are therefore color coded in green as are the external final helices. The figure thus highlights the connectivity between pivoting helices 28, 32 and the remainder of the SSU head domain.