be individually deleted from the genome. Similarly, 16 ribosomal proteins (uL1, bL9, uL15, uL22, uL23, bL28, uL29, bL32, bL33.1, bL33.2, bL34, bL35, bL36, bS6, bS20, and bS21) were successfully deleted in Bacillus subtilis. In conjunction with previous reports, 22 ribosomal proteins have been shown to be nonessential in B. subtilis, at least for cell proliferation. Assembly In E. coli The ribosome of E. coli has about 22 proteins in the small subunit (labelled S1 to S22) and 33 proteins in the large subunit (somewhat counter-intuitively called L1 to L36). All of them are different with three exceptions: one protein is found in both subunits (S20 and L26), L7 and L12 are acetylated and methylated forms of the same protein, and L8 is a complex of L7/L12 and L10. In addition, L31 is known to exist in two forms, the full length at 7.9 kilodaltons (kDa) and fragmented at 7.0 kDa. This is why the number of proteins in a ribosome is of 56. Except for S1 (with a molecular weight of 61.2 kDa), the other proteins range in weight between 4.4 and 29.7 kDa. Recent de novo proteomics experiments where the authors characterized in vivo ribosome-assembly intermediates and associated assembly factors from wild-type Escherichia coli cells using a general quantitative mass spectrometry (qMS) approach have confirmed the presence of all the known small and large subunit components and have identified a total of 21 known and potentially new ribosome-assembly-factors that co-localise with various ribosomal particles. Disposition in the small ribosomal subunit In the small (30S) subunit of E. coli ribosomes, the proteins denoted uS4, uS7, uS8, uS15, uS17, bS20 bind independently to 16S rRNA. After assembly of these primary binding proteins, uS5, bS6, uS9, uS12, uS13, bS16, bS18, and uS19 bind to the growing ribosome. These proteins also potentiate the addition of uS2, uS3, uS10, uS11, uS14, and bS21. Protein binding to helical junctions is important for initiating the correct tertiary fold of RNA and to organize the overall structure. Nearly all the proteins contain one or more globular domains. Moreover, nearly all contain long extensions that can contact the RNA in far-reaching regions. Additional stabilization results from the proteins' basic residues, as these neutralize the charge repulsion of the RNA backbone. Protein–protein interactions also exist to hold structure together by electrostatic and hydrogen bonding interactions. Theoretical investigations pointed to correlated effects of protein-binding onto binding affinities during the assembly