EVIDENCE THAT ESCHERICHIA-COLI 30-S RIBOSOMAL-SUBUNIT POPULATIONS ARE CONFORMATIONALLY HETEROGENEOUS

We have estimated the number of sites on each protein of the 30 S ribosome which are accessible to chemical iodination. First, the total number of iodinatable sites was determined for the intact 30 S ribosome. The proteins were extracted, separated and the relative distribution of iodine in each protein determined. This distribution of iodine divided into the total sites per ribosome gave an estimate of the number of sites per individual protein. Second, the iodinated proteins were purified and their trypsin digestion products separated. The number of radioactive peptides was taken as a measure of the number of sites on that protein open to the iodination reaction. The number of iodinatable sites for each protein was found to be radically different by the two methods. In almost all cases, the number of unique, radioactively labeled peptides, derived from a given 30 S protein, far exceeded the total incorporation into that protein. We suggest that the best explanation for this unexpected discrepancy is that the 30 S ribosome population we used in these experiments is heterogeneous in its topography. In addition we have compared the topography by the chemical iodination procedure for ribosomes in two different conformations: active and inactive (see Zamir et al., 1971). We have found very little change in the chemical reactivity of the proteins when the ribosomes are in the two different conformations. The most notable changes involve proteins S10, S18 S19 and especially S12 S13. © 1979.