Determination of the 3D structure of human pre-40S particles by electron microscopy
Project leader: Célia Plisson-Chastang
Integrating the highly detailed functional description of ribosome maturation into a three-dimensional vision of ribosome assembly is now a major challenge. Cryo-electron microscopy is the major technique available to reach this goal. In collaboration with Pr. Ulrike Kutay (ETH Zürich), we recently published the first structure of a human preribosomal particle, namely precursors to the small subunit. We are currently focusing on the remodeling of these small ribosomal subunit precursors until the final maturation steps in order to understand the structural dynamics of the pre-40S particles that underlies the assembly pathway. These cryo-EM studies are led by Celia Plisson-Chastang and are made possible thanks to the cryo-EM equipment available on the CBI multiscale electron imaging (METI) platform.
Human pre-40S particles purified from HeK 293 cells using tagged LTV1 as bait (Larburu et al., NAR, 2016)