The path of messenger RNA through the ribosome.
Yusupova G.Z., Yusupov M.M., Cate J.H.D., Noller H.F.
Using X-ray crystallography, we have directly observed the path of mRNA in the 70S ribosome in Fourier difference maps at 7 A resolution. About 30 nucleotides of the mRNA are wrapped in a groove that encircles the neck of the 30S subunit. The Shine-Dalgarno helix is bound in a large cleft between the head and the back of the platform. At the interface, only about eight nucleotides (-1 to +7), centered on the junction between the A and P codons, are exposed, and bond almost exclusively to 16S rRNA. The mRNA enters the ribosome around position +13 to +15, the location of downstream pseudoknots that stimulate -1 translational frame shifting.
Cell 106:233-241(2001) [ PubMed | SRS | CiteXplore ]
