Abstract 1784 The Role of Rps-26 Deficient Ribosomes in Sugar Metabolism

Ribosomes are complex macromolecules composed of seventeen ribosomal proteins. One of these proteins is Rps26, which has been shown to be paired with chaperone protein TSR2 and taken off the ribosome during cellular stress. The accumulation of Rps26-deficient ribosomes leads to an entirely new set of mRNAs being preferentially bound to the ribosome, indicating an alternate function for these deficient ribosomes. This led to the question of whether or not Rps26 deficient ribosomes play a role in sugar metabolism. To test this, a series of growth curves on yeast cells were conducted in which cells were grown on a fermentable carbon source- dextrose- or non-fermentable carbon sources- glycerol or ethanol- to test the optimization of non-fermentable carbon source metabolism in Rps26-normal cells and Rps2-deficient cells. Rps26-deficient ribosomes were found to have a significant fold-change growth recovery on non-fermentable carbon sources compared to their counterparts, indicating a direct role in sugar metabolism. Further study is necessary to determine the mechanism of this growth recovery, and to ensure that Rps26-deficiency is the cause. Thank you to NSF for funding this project and continuing to support undergraduate research, and to UF Scripps Research Institute for use of facilities.