30S ribosomal protein S6 of chloroplasts and cyanobacteria
bS6 is one of the components of the small subunit of the prokaryotic ribosome, a ribonucleoprotein organelle that decodes the genetic information in messenger RNA and forms peptide bonds to synthesize the corresponding polypeptides. Mitochondrial and chloroplastic ribosomes are similar to bacterial ribosomes. Ribosomes consist of a large and a small subunit, which assemble during the initiation stage of protein synthesis. Prokaryotic ribosomes consist of three molecules of RNA and more than 50 proteins. The small subunits of bacterial and eukaryotic ribosomes have the same overall shapes (with structural elements described as head, body, platform, beak and shoulder). The bacterial ribosomal protein S6 is important for the assembly of the central domain of the small subunit via heterodimerization with ribosomal protein S18.