The conference entitled "The Translational Apparatus" was held in Berlin from October 31 to November 5, 1992, in honorem et memoriam of H. G. Wittmann. The presentations of the rewarding, enjoyable and scientifically exciting week in Berlin were a fitting appreciation of this great man, and all participants and speakers contributed to the success of the meeting. The second reason for holding the Berlin meeting was to convene a group of scientists for a state-of-the-art presentation on ribosomes and related subjects; the outcome is this book. We have broadened the spectrum of topics to cover activities preceding and following pure ribosomal functions, such as "Synthetases" and "Protein Sorting", respectively, and we took the liberty of ordering the contributions in a way which does not always reflect the order of speakers. We are grateful to the authors who patiently tolerated our organization and our regulations for manuscripts. K.H. Nierhaus F. Franceschi A.R. Subramanian v CONTENTS I. tRNA and Aminoaeyl-tRNA Synthetases 1. The Crystal Structure of SeryI-tRNA Synthetase and its Complexes with A TP and tRNASer...1 S. Cusack, C. Berthet-Colominas, V. Biou, F. Borel, M. Fujinaga, M. Hartlein, I.

For those working and interested in the field of chloroplast ribosomes, an ideal overview is provided by this text. Topics covered include: Plastid rRNAs and tRNAs; Structure, Organization and Expression of Their Genes; Plastid Ribosomal Proteins and Their Genes in Higher Plants; Plastid Ribosomes and Factors of Algae and of Cyanelles; Functional Aspects; Physiological Aspects. Stressed is the fact that biosynthesis and function of the translational apparatus relies upon two separate genetic systems and thus produce particular regulatory problems with fundamental significance. The evolutionary kinship of chloroplast and prokaryotic ribosomes is described as are some differences between them.