Beavan, A.J.S., Thuburn, V., Fatkhullin, B. et al. (16 more authors) (2025) Specialized ribosomes: integrating new insights and current challenges. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 380 (1921). 20230377. ISSN 0962-8436
Abstract
Variation in the composition of different ribosomes, termed ribosome heterogeneity, is a now well established phenomenon. However, the functional implications of this heterogeneity on the regulation of protein synthesis are only now beginning to be revealed. While there are numerous examples of heterogeneous ribosomes, there are comparatively few bona fide specialized ribosomes described. Specialization requires that compositionally distinct ribosomes, through their subtly altered structure, have a functional consequence to the translational output. Even for those examples of ribosome specialization that have been characterized, the precise mechanistic details of how changes in protein and rRNA composition enable the ribosome to regulate translation are still missing. Here, we suggest looking at the evolution of specialization across the tree of life may help reveal central principles of translation regulation. We consider functional and structural studies that have provided insight into the potential mechanisms through which ribosome heterogeneity could affect translation, including through mRNA and open reading frame selectivity, elongation dynamics and post-translational folding. Further, we highlight some of the challenges that must be addressed to show specialization and review the contribution of various models. Several studies are discussed, including recent studies that show how structural insight is starting to shed light on the molecular details of specialization. Finally, we discuss the future of ribosome specialization studies, where advances in technology will likely enable the next wave of research questions. Recent work has helped provide a more comprehensive understanding of how ribosome heterogeneity affects translational control.
This article is part of the discussion meeting issue ‘Ribosome diversity and its impact on protein synthesis, development and disease’.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2025 The Author(s). Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. |
Keywords: | ribosome; translation regulation; protein synthesis; specialized |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > School of Biosciences (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 10 Mar 2025 14:50 |
Last Modified: | 12 Mar 2025 12:52 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | The Royal Society |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1098/rstb.2023.0377 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:224265 |