RNA substrate binding site in the catalytic core of the Tetrahymena ribozyme

• Published in: Nature (London) Vol. 358; no. 6382; pp. 123 - 128
• Main Authors: Pyle, Anna Marie, Murphy, Felicia L, Cech, Thomas R
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing 09.07.1992; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: Adenine - metabolism; Analytical, structural and metabolic biochemistry; Animals; Base Sequence; Binding Sites; Biological and medical sciences; Catalysis; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Genetics; Guanosine - metabolism; Hydrogen Bonding; Introns; Methylation; Molecular Sequence Data; Mutagenesis; Nucleic Acid Conformation; Nucleic acids; Oligonucleotides - metabolism; Ribonucleic acid; RNA; RNA - chemistry; RNA - metabolism; RNA, Catalytic - chemistry; RNA, Catalytic - genetics; RNA, Catalytic - metabolism; Rna, ribonucleoproteins; Substrate Specificity; Tetrahymena; Tetrahymena thermophila - genetics; Thermodynamics; Protozoa; Tetrahymena thermophila; RNA; Ribozyme; Cleavage site; Tertiary structure; Guanosine; Adenine; Dissociation constant; Molecular interaction; Ciliata; Mutation
• ISSN: 0028-0836; 1476-4687
• DOI: 10.1038/358123a0

In catalysis by group I introns, the helix (P1) containing the RNA cleavage site must be positioned next to the guanosine binding site. We have identified a conserved adenine in the catalytic core that contributes to the stability of this arrangement and propose that it accepts a hydrogen bond from a specific 2'-OH in P1. Such base-backbone tertiary interactions may be generally important to the organization of RNA tertiary structure.