In situ cryo-electron tomography reveals gradient organization of ribosome biogenesis in intact nucleoli

Ribosomes comprise a large (LSU) and a small subunit (SSU) which are synthesized independently in the nucleolus before being exported into the cytoplasm, where they assemble into functional ribosomes. Individual maturation steps have been analyzed in detail using biochemical methods, light microscopy and conventional electron microscopy (EM). In recent years, single particle analysis (SPA) has yielded molecular resolution structures of several pre-ribosomal intermediates. It falls short, however, of revealing the spatiotemporal sequence of ribosome biogenesis in the cellular context. Here, we present our study on native nucleoli in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii , in which we follow the formation of LSU and SSU precursors by in situ cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) and subtomogram averaging (STA). By combining both positional and molecular data, we reveal gradients of ribosome maturation within the granular component (GC), offering a new perspective on how the liquid-liquid-phase separation of the nucleolus supports ribosome biogenesis. The large and small subunits of the ribosome are synthesized independently within the nucleolus — a membrane-less compartment within the nucleus — before being exported into the cytoplasm. Here, the authors use in situ cryo-ET to observe ribosome maturation and reveal the native organization of the nucleolus.