bL9 prevents recoding in collided ribosomes

bL9 prevents recoding after ribosome collisions in bacteria, with bL9 loss increasing frameshifting and hopping specifically under collision-inducing conditions.

• Why it matters: Ribosome stalling and collision trigger rescue-factor recruitment, but how bL9 suppresses deleterious recoding during these events has been unclear.
• What they did: Cryo-EM shows bL9 from the leading ribosome contacts the 30S of the trailing ribosome; functional tests used bL9 deletions or collision-interface point mutants plus luciferase reporters and antibiotic sensitivity to erythromycin and fusidic acid.
• The result: Removing bL9 destabilizes collided ribosome interactions and sensitizes cells to collision-inducing antibiotics, while frameshifting and hopping rise only when ribosome collisions occur, implying bL9 blocks these recoding events in wild-type bacterial ribosomes.

AI summary of the abstract · may contain errors · not medical advice · read the paper.