Ribosomes, the cell’s protein factories, have been tough targets for researchers aiming to see them close up. Now, for the first time on the atomic scale, scientists know what most of the ribosome looks like.
A new map reveals most of the structures of the two RNA molecules and 31 proteins that make up the larger of the two subunits of a bacterial ribosome. The map suggests where and how the ribosome chemically stitches amino acids into a protein.