CU Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology
MCDB Home > faculty > FacultyPublications > PaceNRPublications > Phylogenetic-comparative analysis of the eukaryal ribonuclease P RNA
Document Actions

Phylogenetic-comparative analysis of the eukaryal ribonuclease P RNA


Phylogenetic-comparative analysis of the eukaryal ribonuclease P RNA.

31

Ribonuclease P (RNase P) is the ribonucleoprotein enzyme that cleaves 5'-leader sequences from precursor-tRNAs. Bacterial and eukaryal RNase P RNAs differ fundamentally in that the former, but not the latter, are capable of catalyzing pre-tRNA maturation in vitro in the absence of proteins. An explanation of these functional differences will be assisted by a detailed comparison of bacterial and eukaryal RNase P RNA structures. However, the structures of eukaryal RNase P RNAs remain poorly characterized, compared to their bacterial and archaeal homologs. Hence, we have taken a phylogenetic-comparative approach to refine the secondary structures of eukaryal RNase P RNAs. To this end, 20 new RNase P RNA sequences have been determined from species of ascomycetous fungi representative of the genera Arxiozyma, Clavispora, Kluyveromyces, Pichia, Saccharomyces, Saccharomycopsis, Torulaspora, Wickerhamia, and Zygosaccharomyces. Phylogenetic-comparative analysis of these and other sequences refines previous eukaryal RNase P RNA secondary structure models. Patterns of sequence conservation and length variation refine the minimum-consensus model of the core eukaryal RNA structure. In comparison to bacterial RNase P RNAs, the eukaryal homologs lack RNA structural elements thought to be critical for both substrate binding and catalysis. Nonetheless, the eukaryal RNA retains the main features of the catalytic core of the bacterial RNase P. This indicates that the eukaryal RNA remains intrinsically a ribozyme.


Frank DN, Adamidi C, Ehringer MA, Pitulle C, Pace NR

RNA (New York, N.Y.)

2000-12-01 00:00

6

12

1895-904

Animals,Ascomycota,Base Sequence,Catalytic Domain,Consensus Sequence,DNA, Fungal,Endoribonucleases,Eukaryotic Cells,Evolution, Molecular,Fungal Proteins,Genes, Fungal,Humans,Molecular Sequence Data,Nucleic Acid Conformation,Phylogeny,RNA, Catalytic,Ribonuclease P,Sequence Alignment,Species Specificity,Structure-Activity Relationship,Zebrafish,DNA, Fungal,Fungal Proteins,RNA, Catalytic,Endoribonucleases,RPP14 protein, human,Ribonuclease P

Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder 80309-0347, USA

RNA

NIGMS GM 34527

1355-8382




965

True

11142387

Daniel Frank
University of Colorado Contact Us  |   Legal & Trademarks  |  Privacy