Professor Kurt Fredrick
Department of Microbiology
Ohio State University
Columbus, OH

Monday, May 23, 2011
3:00 pm (CT)
2269 Beckman Institute

Abstract

In the past decade, tremendous progress has been made in elucidating the structure and function of the ribosome. Numerous X-ray crystal structures and cryo-EM reconstructions of the ribosome with and without various substrates, factors, and antibiotics have been solved. At the same time, extensive biochemical studies have led to compelling kinetic models for the major steps of protein synthesis. While these studies give us a high- resolution picture of the ribosome and suggest a series of events involved in translation, the roles of specific ribosomal elements in particular events of the process remain unclear. Our group has been working to isolate and characterize mutations in the 16S rRNA that confer altered function. My talk will focus on these studies, which have helped elucidate the role of helix h44 in translation initiation and the role of h8 and h14 in decoding.