Mammalian (rat) ribosomes have 80 proteins; the sequence of amino acid
s in 75 have been determined. What has been learned of the structure o
f the rat ribosomal proteins is reviewed with particular attention to
their evolution and to amino acid sequence motifs. The latter include:
clusters of basic or acidic residues; sequence repeats or shared sequ
ences; zinc finger domains; bZIP elements; and nuclear localization si
gnals. The occurrence and the possible significance of phosphorylated
residues and of ubiquitin extensions is noted. The characteristics of
the mRNAs that encode the proteins are summarized. The relationship of
the rat ribosomal proteins to the proteins in ribosomes from humans,
yeast, archaebacteria, and Escherichia coli is collated.