Interaction of the La (SS-B) autoantigen with small ribosomal subunits

The La (SS-B) autoantigen is an evolutionarily conserved 47-kDa protein which binds to nascent RNA polymerase III transcripts and to a number of viral leader RNAs. The La protein plays a direct role in the termination of RNA polymerase III transcription and recent findings have suggested an additional role in several aspects of translation of (viral) messenger RNAs. Here, we show that La in the cytoplasm is associated with a subset of small ribosomal subunits, possibly by direct association with 18S ribosomal RNA. This association is likely to be related to the putative role of this protein in translation regulation.