| Abstract: | Ribosomal protein S1 contains in its RNA binding domain four repeating, homologous stretches of sequences. Its functionally active mutant form m1-S1 [Subramanian, A.R., & Mizushima, S. (1979) J. Biol. Chem. 254, 4309] contains only three repeating stretches. In order to assess the functional importance of this repeating sequence, we cleaved S1 at its reactive SH group on Cys-349 and isolated a fragment (S1-F4) that has lost two of the homologous stretches but retains all other essential elements. We find that ribosomes reconstituted with S1-F4 instead of S1 are functionally active in translating poly(U) and poly(A) but totally inactive in translating phage MS2 RNA. The significance of this result is discussed vis-à-vis the initiation step in translating natural mRNA, and a functional role for the tetrarepeat of S1 is suggested. |
