Ribosome Microcrystals

Abstract

In 1965 I was employed as a research assistant at the Institute of Histology and Embryology in the Medical Faculty of Bologna University and a few months later, in 1966, I read a paper by Breck Byers that described the results of a cooling treatment on one-day old chick embryos (Byers 1966). More precisely, Byers discovered that an incubation of the eggs at 4 °C for 24 h was inducing in the embryonic cells the formation of ribosome microcrystals. I was immediately attracted by this discovery because it was the proof that ribosomes can form crystals and getting a crystal is the first step for reconstructing a three-dimensional structure.

Appendix: A Gallery of Eukaryotic Ribosome Microcrystals

(Plates 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5 and 2.6)

Plate 2.1

Eukaryotic ribosome microcrystals obtained from chick embryo extracts with the method described in the Journal of Supramolecular Structure, 1979, Vol. 10, pp. 349–357

Plate 2.2

Eukaryotic ribosome microcrystals obtained from chick embryo extracts with the method described in the Journal of Supramolecular Structure, 1979, Vol. 10, pp. 349–357

Plate 2.3

Eukaryotic ribosome microcrystals obtained from chick embryo extracts with the method described in the Journal of Supramolecular Structure, 1979, Vol. 10, pp. 349–357

Plate 2.4

Eukaryotic ribosome microcrystals obtained from chick embryo extracts with the method described in the Journal of Supramolecular Structure, 1979, Vol. 10, pp. 349–357

Plate 2.5

Eukaryotic ribosome microcrystals obtained from chick embryo extracts with the method described in the Journal of Supramolecular Structure, 1979, Vol. 10, pp. 349–357

Plate 2.6

Ribosome tetramers are the components of the microcrystals obtained from chick embryos with the method described in the Journal of Supramolecular Structure, 1979, Vol. 10, pp. 349–357