Studies on the ability of partially iodinated 16S RNA to participate in 30S ribosome assembly

Deproteinated 16S RNA was iodinated at pH 5.0 in an aqueous solution containing TlCl3 plus KI for 1-5 hours at 42 degrees C. Under these conditions 33 moles of iodine are incorporated per mole of RNA. As judged by sucrose gradient sedimentation, the iodinated RNA does not exhibit any large alteration in conformation as compared to unmodified 16S. The iodinated RNA was examined for its ability to reconstitute with total 30S proteins. Sedimentation velocity analysis reveals that the reconstituted subunit has a sedimentation constant of approximately 20S. In addition, protein analysis of particles reconstituted with 16S RNA iodinated for 5 hours indicates that proteins S2, S10, S13, S14, S15, S17, S18, S19, and S21 are no longer able to participate in the 30S assembly process and that proteins S6, S16 and S20 are present in reduced amounts. The ramifications of these results concerning protein-RNA and RNA-RNA interactions occurring in ribosome assembly are discussed.