The involvement of 5S RNA in the binding of tRNA to ribosomes

The tRNA fragment TpψpCpGp was found to bind to 5S RNA. This binding is ten times increased when a specific 5S RNA-protein complex is used. The ability of TpψpCpGp to bind to the complex could be abolished by selective chemical modification of two adenines in 5S RNA. Such 5S RNA, when incorporated into 50S ribosomal subunits, yielded particles with greatly reduced biological activities. From the results presented we conclude that 5S RNA is most likely part of a site with which the TψC-loop of tRNA interacts on the ribosome.