Pressure-induced dissociation of sedimenting ribosomes: effect on sedimentation patterns.

Anomalous sedimentation patterns arise when free ribosomes from sea urchin eggs are centrifuged at high speeds. Pressure-induced dissociation of the ribosomes during sedimentation can explain the peculiar behavior; the assumption of such dissociation also yields estimates of the equilibrium constant (as a function of KCl concentration) and the change in molecular volume (500 +/- 100 ml/mol) in the reaction: subunits right arrow over left arrow ribosome. Such dissociation during centrifugation may explain many experiments in which apparent reduced sedimentation coefficients for ribosomes, and increased coefficients for the subunits, have been ascribed to conformational changes.