ABSTRACT

We present here a state of the art review of our interdisciplinary line of research based on molecular biology and biophysics strategies applied to the study of the prokaryotic ribosome. In particular we adopted an approach using spectroscopic methodologies (dielectric spectroscopy and fluorescence) and thermal degradation analysis (differential scanning microcalori-metry). Here we report studies on the whole 70S ribosomes and on the separated subunits 30S and 50S. Our results evidence intrinsic structural features of the subunits, the small being more “floppy” while the large one is more rigid. Also an inner “kernel” formed by the RNA-protein association is found within the ribosome. This kernel is surrounded by a ribonucleoprotein complex more exposed to the solvent. In addition, we could evidence structures exhibiting a differential stability towards thermal degradation. We also hypothesise a possible biological and functional significance of these findings.