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  2. Different ribosomes fulfill different functions

Different ribosomes fulfill different functions

By apalazzo on November 29, 2007.

Blogging on Peer-Reviewed ResearchThis week, I haven't had too much time to blog, but I would like to point out two posts written about a paper that I briefly mentioned in a post that appeared last week. It's on that that fabulous result concerning ribosomes from budding yeast.

Background: the S. cerevisiae genome underwent a duplication event - as a result many ribosomal proteins are now encoded by two distinct genes. Two groups located here at Harvard Medical School (the Silver and Roth labs), have found that these critters take advantage of the many duplicate genes that encode ribosomal proteins to construct at least two types of ribosomes that have different properties. One of the ribosome varieties has a greater propensity for translating a very special mRNA (encoding ASH1) that is specifically localized to the bud.

This idea, that the ribosome can vary and that each variation can fulfill a different function, sets a precident.

To read more, see Dan's post:
Ribosomal Paralogs not Redundant Afterall

And also check out bayman's post:
Holy Freaking Heterogeneous Ribosomes!

Ref:
S. Komili, N. Farny, F. Roth, P. Silver
Functional Specificity among Ribosomal Proteins Regulates Gene Expression.
Cell, Volume 131, Issue 3, Pages 557-571

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