The specific phosphorylation of a 40S ribosomal protein in growth-arrested tetrahymena is induced by sodium.

In the past few years, in vivo phosphorylation of ribosomal proteins has been the subject of extensive studies and the results have shown that reversible phosphorylation of small subunit ribosomal protein S6, ubiquitous in eukaryotic cells, is apparently related to regulation of protein synthesis initiation. Thus the level of protein synthesis under various conditions is correlated with the level of S6 phosphorylation. In exponentially growing Tetrahymena, however, such phosphorylation does not occur, but when these cells are transferred to starvation buffers, the rate of protein synthesis is drastically reduced and a 40S ribosomal protein analogous to S6 of higher eukaryotic cells is fully and rapidly phosphorylated in all the ribosomes. We have studied the conditions which lead to this phosphorylation in growth-arrested Tetrahymena, in order to understand the physiological significance of this process. Our results show that there is no obvious correlation between this phosphorylation and starvation. Moreover, it is not a developmentally regulated process related to the conjugation cycle, but a modification induced by the presence of sodium ions or high concentration of Tris in the starvation buffer. The physiological significance of this process is discussed in terms of accumulation of negative charge density probably required for initiation of protein synthesis in the growth-arrested cells starving in Na+-containing buffers.