Ribosomes PETE MCGEE

What are Ribosomes?  Found in every cell  Protein Synthesizers of the cell  Located on the Rough ER and in the cytoplasm in eukaryotic cells and move freely in prokaryotic cells  They are a combination of RNA and proteins

What do they do?  Read mRNA (messenger RNA) to build proteins  Rough ER  Builds proteins to send out of the cell  Cytoplasm  Builds proteins to use in the cytoplasm

What do they look like?  They are up to 10x’s larger in Eukaryotic cells  2 Subunits-based on sedimentation in a centrifuge  Smaller one attaches to mRNA  Larger attaches to tRNA (transfer RNA) and amino acids

What happens when they don’t work correctly  Alzheimer's Disease  Impairment of the function of ribosomes  Decreased rate of protein synthesis and ribosomal RNA and tRNA  Ultimately results in memory loss  Diamond-Blackfan anaemia  Extremely rare  Low blood cell count  Occurs when ribosomal protein 19 is mutated and affects the translation and protein synthesis in the bone marrow  Ultimately results in lack of oxygen to the body