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Comparative analysis of ribonuclease P R ... ls tertiary structural elements
Comparative analysis of ribonuclease P RNA using gene sequences from natural microbial populations reveals tertiary structural elements.
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PCR amplification of template DNAs extracted from mixed, naturally occurring microbial populations, using oligonucleotide primers complementary to highly conserved sequences, was used to obtain a large collection of diverse RNase P RNA-encoding genes. An alignment of these sequences was used in a comparative analysis of RNase P RNA secondary and tertiary structure. The new sequences confirm the secondary structure model based on sequences from cultivated organisms (with minor alterations in helices P12 and P18), providing additional support for nearly every base pair. Analysis of sequence covariation using the entire RNase P RNA data set reveals elements of tertiary structure in the RNA; the third nucleotides (underlined) of the GNRA tetraloops L14 and L18 are seen to interact with adjacent Watson-Crick base pairs in helix P8, forming A:G/C or G:A/U base triples. These experiments demonstrate one way in which the enormous diversity of natural microbial populations can be used to elucidate molecular structure through comparative analysis.
Brown JW, Nolan JM, Haas ES, Rubio MA, Major F, Pace NR
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
1996-04-02 00:00
93
7
3001-6
Bacteria,Base Composition,Base Sequence,DNA Primers,Endoribonucleases,Genes, Bacterial,Models, Structural,Molecular Sequence Data,Nucleic Acid Conformation,Phylogeny,Polymerase Chain Reaction,RNA, Bacterial,RNA, Catalytic,Ribonuclease P,DNA Primers,RNA, Bacterial,RNA, Catalytic,Endoribonucleases,Ribonuclease P
Department of Microbiology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh 27695, USA
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.
0027-8424
906
True
8610158
