Macrolide-peptide conjugates as probes of the path of travel of the nascent peptides through the ribosome.

ABSTRACT: Despite decades of research on the bacterial ribosome, the ribosomal exit tunnel is still poorly understood. Although it has been suggested that the exit tunnel is simply a convenient route of egress for the nascent chain, specific protein sequences serve to slow the rate of translation, suggesting some degree of interaction between the nascent peptide chain and the exit tunnel. To understand how the ribosome interacts with nascent peptide sequences, we synthesized and characterized a novel class of probe molecules. These peptide-macrolide (or "peptolide") conjugates were designed to present unique peptide sequences to the exit tunnel. Biochemical and X-ray structural analyses of the interactions between these probes and the ribosome reveal interesting insights about the exit tunnel. Using

SUBMITTER: Washington AZ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4245169 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature