The procedure of isolation and renaturation of all ribosomal proteins from the 30-S subunit of Escherichia coli ribosomes is described. Absorption spectra of these proteins in the near-ultraviolet region have been measured and molar absorption coefficients have been determined on the basis of nitrogen content. Molar absorption coefficients have been calculated for 20 proteins with a known amino acid sequence and the calculated values have been compared with the experimentally determined ones. The absorption spectra obtained allow an easy, precise and highly reproducible spectrophotometric determination of the concentration of individual ribosomal proteins.Circular dichroic spectra of 21 individual proteins from the 30-S subunit of E. coli ribosomes were measured in the range 284-310 nm. The secondary structure of the proteins studied was calculated from the spectra in the range 190-240 nm. Almost all proteins (except proteins S12, S17, S18 and S19) are characterized by a high content of secondary structure. Circular dichroic spectra in the near-ultraviolet region (240 -310 nm) indicate that the side groups of aromatic amino acids are fixed in the tertiary structure of the proteins studied.Some internal characteristics (independent of the measurement conditions) of the circular dichroic spectrum in the far-ultraviolet region were proposed as a measure of the resemblance to the native state of ribosomal proteins ; these characteristics may be useful for comparison of protein preparations obtained by different methods in different laboratories. Ribosomal proteins, as a rule, have no actually known physiological functions in the isolated state. Therefore the concept of the native origin of these proteins can be defined only by the identity of their structure and properties in the isolated state to those within the ribosome. The assembly of active ribosomal subunits from the individual isolated proteins cannot prove their native existence as proteins are used in excess during the assembly; they can renature in the process of assembly and the number of active subunits formed is not Therefore from general considerations it is possible to assume that a smaller radius of gyration [6], a more folded tertiary structure (according to NMR data) [7 -91, a higher cooperativity at heat denaturation [9] and a larger content of ordered secondary structure (secondary folding) [I 01 indicate a greater structural identity to the native state of ribosomal proteins.In the study reported here, circular dichroic (CD) spectra of all individual proteins from the small subunit of Escherichia Abbreviations. RNP, ribonucleoprotein; CD, circular dichroism 100 %.coli ribosomes isolated by LiCl/urea extraction and then transferred to non-denaturing conditions were measured in the range 184-310 nm. Of course, we cannot be absolutely certain that for all the proteins isolated under denaturing conditions, a complete renaturation was achieved ; however, we consider that the CD spectra presented are optical characteristics of the individual ribosom...