The current review presents original and literature data on the struct
ural studies of ribosome components aimed to establish the structural
peculiarities of RNA-protein and protein-protein interactions. Analysi
s of the known structures of 13 ribosomal proteins and several fragmen
ts of ribosomal RNA taken together with biochemical and genetic experi
mental data revealed binding sites on proteins and rRNA, thereby initi
ating modeling of rRNA-protein complexes and multicomponent subribosom
al domains.