Nobel Prize for the Elucidation of Ribosome Structure and Insight into the Translation Mechanism

摘要

In 1999, four papers reported crystal structures of ribosomal particles at modest resolution (ca. 5 A), indicating that we stood on the brink of a scientific breakthrough, and in particular in the field of protein synthesis. In fact, the revolution in structure resolution was dramatically improved within the following few years: In 2000 and 2001, a second wave of papers from the same groups were published that reported ribosomal subunits at high resolution (2.4-3.0 A) and the complete ribosome at 5.5 A.