The Ribosome Comes Alive

Abstract

This essay is a reflection on the ways the X‐ray structures of the ribosome are helping in the interpretation of cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo‐EM) density maps showing the translating ribosome in motion. Through advances in classification methods, cryo‐EM and single‐particle reconstruction methods have recently evolved to the point where they can yield an array of structures from a single sample (“story in a sample”), providing snapshots of an entire subprocess of translation, such as translocation or decoding.