Resistance to antibiotics has become a major threat to modern medicine. The ribosome plays a fundamental role in cell vitality by the translation of the genetic code into proteins; hence, it is a major target for clinically useful antibiotics. We report here the cryo-electron microscopy structures of the ribosome of a pathogenic aminoglycoside (AG)-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain, as well as of a nonresistance strain isolated from a cystic fibrosis patient. The structural studies disclosed defective ribosome complex formation due to a conformational change of rRNA helix H69, an essential intersubunit bridge, and a secondary binding site of the AGs. In addition, a stable conformation of nucleotides A1486 and A1487, pointing into helix h44, is created compared to a non-AG-bound ribosome. We suggest that altering the conformations of ribosomal protein uL6 and rRNA helix H69, which interact with initiation-factor IF2, interferes with proper protein synthesis initiation.
Organizational Affiliation:
Department of Structural Biology, The Weizmann Institute of Science, 7610001 Rehovot, Israel.
The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark.
Department of Clinical Microbiology, Rigshospitalet, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark.
Department of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 1165 Copenhagen, Denmark.
Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Department of Microbiology, Monash University, 3800 Clayton, VIC, Australia.
The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark; sm@bio.dtu.dk ada.yonath@weizmann.ac.il.
Department of Structural Biology, The Weizmann Institute of Science, 7610001 Rehovot, Israel; sm@bio.dtu.dk ada.yonath@weizmann.ac.il.
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