The ribosome is the most abundant macromolecular assembly in the cell — ~10 million per growing bacterium, ~107 per eukaryotic cell — and the only one that synthesises itself. It translates ~20 amino acids per second per ribosome in E. coli. Our new 7-module graduate course traces its biology from Palade’s 1955 electron-microscopy discovery through the 2009 Ramakrishnan/Steitz/Yonath atomic structures to the frontier of ribosome specialisation and ribosomopathy therapeutics.
Seven Modules
- M0 — Discovery & Structure: Palade 1955 ribosomes, 30S/50S/70S, rRNA modifications, the 2009 Nobel-winning atomic structures, the ribosome as a ribozyme.
- M1 — Initiation: the 43S preinitiation complex, cap-dependent scanning, eIF2α phosphorylation and the integrated stress response, bacterial Shine-Dalgarno, IRES-mediated initiation, uORFs.
- M2 — Elongation Cycle: EF-Tu ternary complex, the decoding centre’s A1492/A1493 adenines, kinetic proofreading, EF-G translocation, ~4 ATP equivalents per peptide bond.
- M3 — Termination & Recycling: eRF1/eRF3 stop codon recognition, ABCE1 splitting, NMD/NSD/NGD surveillance, ribosome-associated quality control (RQC), read-through therapy (ataluren, DMD).
- M4 — Antibiotics: aminoglycosides (decoding), macrolides (exit tunnel), chloramphenicol + linezolid (PTC), tetracyclines, resistance mechanisms.
- M5 — Ribosomopathies: Diamond-Blackfan, 5q- syndrome + lenalidomide, Shwachman-Diamond, dyskeratosis congenita, Treacher Collins; the p53 axis.
- M6 — Specialised Ribosomes: RPL38-dependent Hox translation, rRNA modification heterogeneity, Ribo-Seq, the emerging specialised-ribosome hypothesis.