Statistical and Correlative Analysis of Ribosomal Proteins of <em>Escherichia coli</em>

Ribosome is the macromolecular machine that regenerates cells, and support life through continuous protein synthesis. It is an adaptable machine able to synthesize proteins at different speed and production volume depending on the strength of the ribosome binding site. This work set out to use statistical and correlative analysis to decipher statisticalrelationships amongstribosomal proteins of different size, molecular weight, and expression level. Results from histogram analysis reveal that smaller ribosomal proteins of lower molecular weight are in larger abundance. In addition, correlative analysis reveals a positive correlation between expression level and molecular weight of ribosomal protein, indicating that smaller ribosomal proteins are at higher expression level. At the subunit level, calculation of energy cost from the multiplication of ribosomal protein molecular weight and expression level reveals further surprises that the large subunit is less energetically costly to build than the small subunit. In addition, the ribosomal proteins in the large subunit are smaller and of lower energetic cost. Taking in view that the sedimentation coefficient of the large subunit is 50S, and that of the small subunit is 30S, data in this work reveals that there may be additional, as‐ yet not characterized structural or biocatalytic proteins located in E. coli large ribosome subunit.