ArticlePloS one2012
Ribosomal history reveals origins of modern protein synthesis.
Article in PloS one, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 83 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
83 citing papers in PubMed.
- Article
- Architectural principles of the ribosomal large subunit revealed by A-helix spatial organization.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Phylogeny Building for Structural Phylogenomic Research.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2026Article
- Tracing Molecular Chronologies Onto Growing Biological Networks.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2026Article
- Tracing the Origin and Evolution of the Secondary Structure of RNA.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2026Article
- The origins and evolution of translation factors.Trends in genetics : TIG · 2025Review
- Traces of a Primitive RNA Ring in Current Genomes.Biology · 2025Article
- Evolution of intrinsic disorder in the structural domains of viral and cellular proteomes.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Review
- Tracing the birth and intrinsic disorder of loops and domains in protein evolution.Biophysical reviews · 2024Review
- Stability and suitability of housekeeping genes in phlebotomine sand flies.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- On Protein Loops, Prior Molecular States and Common Ancestors of Life.Journal of molecular evolution · 2024Review
- Protein Fold Usages in Ribosomes: Another Glance to the Past.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- An Unsupervised Classifier for Whole-Genome Phylogenies, the Maxwell© Tool.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- Tracing the birth of structural domains from loops during protein evolution.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- On the origin of life: an RNA-focused synthesis and narrative.RNA (New York, N.Y.) · 2023Article
- Primitive Oligomeric RNAs at the Origins of Life on Earth.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- Self-empowerment of life through RNA networks, cells and viruses.F1000Research · 2023Review
- A Short Tale of the Origin of Proteins and Ribosome Evolution.Microorganisms · 2022Review
- Short peptide-based cross-β amyloids exploit dual residues for phosphoesterase like activity.Chemical science · 2022Article
23 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The origin and evolution of the ribosome is central to our understanding of the cellular world. Most hypotheses posit that the ribosome originated in the peptidyl transferase center of the large ribosomal subunit. However, these proposals do not link protein synthesis to RNA recognition and do not use a phylogenetic comparative framework to study ribosomal evolution. Here we infer evolution of the structural components of the ribosome. Phylogenetic methods widely used in morphometrics are applied directly to RNA structures of thousands of molecules and to a census of protein structures in hundreds of genomes. We find that components of the small subunit involved in ribosomal processivity evolved earlier than the catalytic peptidyl transferase center responsible for protein synthesis. Remarkably, subunit RNA and proteins coevolved, starting with interactions between the oldest proteins (S12 and S17) and the oldest substructure (the ribosomal ratchet) in the small subunit and ending with the rise of a modern multi-subunit ribosome. Ancestral ribonucleoprotein components show similarities to in vitro evolved RNA replicase ribozymes and protein structures in extant replication machinery. Our study therefore provides important clues about the chicken-or-egg dilemma associated with the central dogma of molecular biology by showing that ribosomal history is driven by the gradual structural accretion of protein and RNA structures. Most importantly, results suggest that functionally important and conserved regions of the ribosome were recruited and could be relics of an ancient ribonucleoprotein world.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.