Methylation of yeast ribosomal protein Rpl3 promotes translational elongation fidelity

Rpl3, a highly conserved ribosomal protein, is methylated at histidine 243 by the Hpm1 methyltransferase in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Histidine 243 lies close to the peptidyl transferase center in a functionally important region of Rpl3 designated as the basic thumb that coordinates the decoding, peptidyl transfer, and translocation steps of translation elongation. Hpm1 was recently implicated in ribosome biogenesis and translation. However, the biological role of methylation of its Rpl3 substrate has not been identified. Here we interrogate the role of Rpl3 methylation at H243 by investigating the functional impact of mutating this histidine residue to alanine (rpl3-H243A). Akin to Hpm1-deficient cells, rpl3-H243A cells accumulate 35S and 23S pre-rRNA precursors to a similar extent, confirming an important role for histidine methylation in pre-rRNA processing. In contrast, Hpm1-deficient cells but not rpl3-H243A mutants show perturbed levels of ribosomal subunits. We show that Hpm1 has multiple substrates in different subcellular fractions, suggesting that methylation of proteins other than Rpl3 may be important for controlling ribosomal subunit levels. Finally, translational fidelity assays demonstrate that like Hpm1-deficient cells, rpl3-H243A mutants have defects in translation elongation resulting in decreased translational accuracy. These data suggest that Rpl3 methylation at H243 is playing a significant role in translation elongation, likely via the basic thumb, but has little impact on ribosomal subunit levels. Hpm1 is therefore a multifunctional methyltransferase with independent roles in ribosome biogenesis and translation.