Nature: Uncovering the mechanism of bacterial rescue molecule SmrB to clear ribosome collision

Early research on yeast had shown that the ribosome stalled when it encountered problems

March 13, 2022 / Bio Valley BIOON / --- Rachel Green appeared on the screen in front of a multi-segmented three-dimensional structure, showing the collision of ribosomes inside a cell that scientists have never seen before

But at first, Green didn't think so

The Green team has a pretty good idea of ​​what's going on, but they don't have a snapshot to prove it

"When they first show you a structure, you can't really tell what because everything is grey," Green said.

Her team speculates that the "little ball" acts as a molecular first responder in a collision

Molecular machines called ribosomes actually act on instructions encoded in linear chains of genetic material

Early research on yeast had shown that the ribosome stalled when it encountered problems

SmrB is a universal ribosome rescue factor

Bacterial cells' ribosomes also get stuck, but scientists speculate that bacteria respond to ribosome collisions in the same way as yeast

In Green's lab, Buskirk and Kazuki Saito, the paper's first author, identified the first responder in bacteria as a molecule called SmrB and explored how it performs its tasks

Beckmann's team captured the first picture of a collision between two bacterial ribosomes, then color-coded them so their components wouldn't be lost in a sea of ​​gray

Biochemical experiments showed that SmrB, like its yeast counterpart, cleaved colliding ribosomes apart

"Everything else about these rescue pathways is very different," Green said.

References:

Kazuki Saito et al.