Pre-ribosomes on the road from the nucleolus to the cytoplasm

Eukaryotic ribosomes are assembled in the nucleolus before export to the cytoplasm. Ribosome formation is a highly dynamic and coordinated multistep process, which requires synthesis, processing and modification of pre-rRNAs, assembly with ribosomal proteins and transient interaction of numerous non-ribosomal factors with the evolving pre-ribosomal particles. In the past two years, exciting insights into the sequential events occurring during pre-ribosome formation have been obtained, thanks largely to the advances in proteomic analyses. We now have a first biochemical map of the earliest 90S pre-ribosomes and of their daughter pre-40S and pre-60S ribosomal subunits along their path from the nucleolus to the cytoplasm. The future challenge will be to assign functions to the more than 150 non-ribosomal factors that transiently associate with the developing pre-ribosomes.