New article in Nature Microbiology: Evolutionary compaction and adaptation visualized by the structure of the dormant microsporidian ribosome

A new study from the Barandun research group in collaboration with researchers at The Rockefeller University and The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment station uncovers the cryo-EM structure of the smallest known eukaryotic cytoplasmic ribosome. The structure visualizes the effect of extreme genome compaction on the translation machinery in microsporidia, uncovers a species-specific ribosomal protein and suggests a novel mode of ribosome inhibition in eukaryotes.

Manuscript:

Barandun, J., Hunziker, M., Vossbrinck, C. R. & Klinge, S. Evolutionary compaction and adaptation visualized by the structure of the dormant microsporidian ribosome. Nat. Microbiol. (2019). in press. doi:10.1038/s41564-019-0514-6

Involved research groups:

Barandun research group
The Laboratory for Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden (MIMS) and SciLifeLab National Fellow
Department of Molecular Biology

Klinge laboratory
Laboratory of Protein and Nucleic Acid Chemistry, Klinge Lab
The Rockefeller University, New York, USA

Vossbrinck laboratory
Department of Environmental Sciences 
The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station
New Haven, CT, USA

Image Attributions

1. “Corn (Zea mays): Corn earworm (Helicoverpa zea)” by Plant pests and diseases is licensed under CC PDM 1.0 
2. Vairimorpha necatrix spores, picture by Charles R. Vossbrinck