The chaperonin GroEL and other heat-shock proteins, besides DnaK, participate in ribosome biogenesis in Escherichia coli.

It has been shown that in Escherichia coli the chaperone DnaK is necessary for the late stages of 50S and 30S ribosomalsubunit assembly in vivo. Here we focus on the roles of other HSPs ( heat-shock proteins), including the chaperonin GroEL, in addition to DnaK, in ribosome biogenesisat high temperature. GroELis shown to be required for the very late 45S→50S step in the biogenesisof the large ribosomesubunit, but not for 30S assembly. Interestingly, overproductionof GroES/ GroELcan partially compensate for a lack of DnaK/DnaJ at 44°C.