Ribosome*RelA structures reveal the mechanism of stringent response activation
Authors
Loveland, Anna B.Bah, Eugene
Madireddy, Rohini
Zhang, Ying
Brilot, Axel F.
Grigorieff, Nikolaus
Korostelev, Andrei A.
UMass Chan Affiliations
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular PharmacologyRNA Therapeutics Institute
Document Type
Journal ArticlePublication Date
2016-07-19Keywords
E. coliRelA
biophysics
cognate tRNA
cryo-EM
decoding
ribosome
stringent response
structural biology
Biophysics
Structural Biology
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Show full item recordAbstract
Stringent response is a conserved bacterial stress response underlying virulence and antibiotic resistance. RelA/SpoT-homolog proteins synthesize transcriptional modulators (p)ppGpp, allowing bacteria to adapt to stress. RelA is activated during amino-acid starvation, when cognate deacyl-tRNA binds to the ribosomal A (aminoacyl-tRNA) site. We report four cryo-EM structures of E. coli RelA bound to the 70S ribosome, in the absence and presence of deacyl-tRNA accommodating in the 30S A site. The boomerang-shaped RelA with a wingspan of more than 100 A wraps around the A/R (30S A-site/RelA-bound) tRNA. The CCA end of the A/R tRNA pins the central TGS domain against the 30S subunit, presenting the (p)ppGpp-synthetase domain near the 30S spur. The ribosome and A/R tRNA are captured in three conformations, revealing hitherto elusive states of tRNA engagement with the ribosomal decoding center. Decoding-center rearrangements are coupled with the step-wise 30S-subunit 'closure', providing insights into the dynamics of high-fidelity tRNA decoding.Source
Elife. 2016 Jul 19;5. pii: e17029. doi: 10.7554/eLife.17029. Link to article on publisher's siteDOI
10.7554/eLife.17029Permanent Link to this Item
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/39979PubMed ID
27434674Related Resources
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Copyright © 2016, Loveland et al. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.Distribution License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.7554/eLife.17029
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as Copyright © 2016, Loveland et al. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.