Making ends meet:a universal driver of large ribosomal subunit biogenesis

A common aspect of ribosome assembly, conserved across all domains of life, is the establishment of connections between the 5′ and 3′ ends of the large subunit (LSU) ribosomal RNA (rRNA) to initiate rRNA domain compaction and subunit assembly. We discuss the diverse mechanisms employed in different organisms to accomplish this important event.