Plenary Lectures and VIP Guests

Dr. Joachim Frank

Abstract:

Ribosomes are the ubiquitous machines of life, in bacteria, plants, animals, making proteins at the instructions of the genetic blueprints. There are more. than a million in each eukaryotic cell and they work with incredible precision. But they are formed each time anew – for each new genetic message – from two subunits, one large, one small, which must associate across more than a dozen of bridges made of proteins and RNA.  

We have looked at this process of subunit association – which takes fractions of a second – with a technique of time-resolved cryogenic electron microscopy that has a time resolution of a few milliseconds. The story we discovered is breathtaking, and features (1) magnesium ions which decorate the subunits, creating the exact charging texture that allows the subunits to recognize each other and form the bridges (2) several pathways of association, one very fast (<10 ms), and several slow, going through distinct intermediates.