Ribosome•RelA structures reveal the mechanism of stringent response activation Anna B. Loveland 1,2, Eugene Bah 1,4, Rohini Madireddy 1,Ying Zhang 1, 2,5 2,3,6 1,6 Axel F. Brilot , Nikolaus Grigorieff *, Andrei A. Korostelev * 1 RNA Therapeutics Institute, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, 368 Plantation St., Worcester, MA 01605, USA. 2 Department of Biochemistry, Rosenstiel Basic Medical Sciences Research Center, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02454, USA 3 Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 19700 Helix Drive, Ashburn, VA 20147, USA 4 Present address: Mayo Medical School, 200 First St. SW, Rochester, MN 55905, USA 5 Present address: Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, 600 16th Street, San Francisco CA 94158, USA 6 Co-senior author * Correspondence:
[email protected] (N.G.),
[email protected] (A.A.K.) 1 Summary Stringent response is a conserved bacterial stress response underlying virulence and antibiotic resistance. RelA/SpoT-homolog proteins synthesize transcriptional modulators (p)ppGpp, allowing bacteria to adapt to stresses. RelA is activated during amino-acid starvation, when cognate deacyl-tRNA binds to the ribosomal A (aminoacyl- tRNA) site. We report four cryo-EM structures of E. coli RelA bound to the 70S ribosome, in the absence and presence of deacyl-tRNA accommodating in the 30S A site. The boomerang-shaped RelA with a wingspan of more than 100 Å wraps around the A/R (30S A-site/RelA-bound) tRNA. The CCA end of the A/R tRNA pins the central TGS domain against the 30S subunit, presenting the (p)ppGpp-synthetase domain near the 30S spur.