Towards a classification of E. coli ribosomal proteins: a hypothetical 'small ribosome' as a primitive protein-synthesizing apparatus.

Homologies were searched among the published primary sequences of 51 E. coli ribosomal proteins, partly by 'eye' and partly by computer-assisted methods. By employing Moore and Goodman's alignment statistics for evaluating homology levels, 33 out of these 51 ribosomal proteins has been classified into 9 homology groups, some of which being yet tentative and remaining to be further analyzed. Taking it into consideration that most ribosomal protein genes are clustered at str-stc region, rif region and several other regions, these results strongly suggest that most or all of the contemporary ribosomal proteins must have evolved by repeated gene duplications of very few (or only one) primitive ancestral ribosomal protein gene(s). Thus it is most reasonable to propose that 'a small ribosome' consisting of very few (or only one) ribosomal protein(s) must have existed as a primitive protein-synthesizing apparatus.