Ribosome collisions trigger subunit splitting in E. coli

Although many clinically important antibiotics inhibit bacterial ribosomes, the mechanisms by which bacterial cells rescue ribosomes stalled by antibiotics remain poorly understood. Ribosome stalling leads to collisions that recruit ribosome quality control (RQC) factors that recycle the ribosome subunits and target nascent proteins for degradation. Surprisingly, loss of known RQC factors in E. coli does not lead to significant antibiotic sensitivity, even though antibiotics stall ribosomes and induce collisions, suggesting the existence of additional, uncharacterized RQC mechanisms. Here we report a novel mechanism for ribosome quality control (RQC) in bacteria in which the DExH-box ATPase HrpA splits stalled ribosomes into subunits. HrpA selectively acts on collided ribosomes and its activity is dependent on ATP hydrolysis. The cryo-EM structure of HrpA bound to collided ribosomes reveals insight into its selectivity and mechanism: the C-terminal domain of HrpA senses the collision and its helicase domain bind mRNA downstream of the ribosomes, where it likely exerts a pulling force that destabilizes the stalled ribosome. These studies highlight the importance of ribosome splitting as a highly conserved RQC mechanism across all three domains of life and identify an important pathway in proteobacteria that allows proteobacteria to tolerate ribosome-targeting antibiotics. Overall design: Ribosome profiling with two replicates for three strains (wild-type MG1655, delta-hrpA, and the delta-hrpA delta-smrB double) containing the plasmid "IRAGP_reporter".