Pistol ribozyme adopts a pseudoknot fold facilitating site-specific in-line cleavage Journal Article


Authors: Ren, A.; Vusurovic, N.; Gebetsberger, J.; Gao, P.; Juen, M.; Kreutz, C.; Micura, R.; Patel, D. J.
Article Title: Pistol ribozyme adopts a pseudoknot fold facilitating site-specific in-line cleavage
Abstract: The field of small self-cleaving nucleolytic ribozymes has been invigorated by the recent discovery of the twister, twister-sister, pistol and hatchet ribozymes. We report the crystal structure of a pistol ribozyme termed env25, which adopts a compact tertiary architecture stabilized by an embedded pseudoknot fold. The G-U cleavage site adopts a splayed-apart conformation with in-line alignment of the modeled 2'-O of G for attack on the adjacent to-be-cleaved P-O5' bond. Highly conserved residues G40 (N1 position) and A32 (N3 and 2'-OH positions) are aligned to act as a general base and a general acid, respectively, to accelerate cleavage chemistry, with their roles confirmed by cleavage assays on variants, and an increased pK(a) of 4.7 for A32. Our structure of the pistol ribozyme defined how the overall and local topologies dictate the in-line alignment at the G-U cleavage site, with cleavage assays on variants revealing key residues that participate in acid-base-catalyzed cleavage chemistry.
Keywords: rna; catalysis; crystal-structure; structural basis; state; ribozyme; self-cleaving ribozymes; hairpin ribozyme; delta virus ribozyme; varkud satellite; twister ribozyme
Journal Title: Nature Chemical Biology
Volume: 12
Issue: 9
ISSN: 1552-4450
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group  
Date Published: 2016-09-01
Start Page: 702
End Page: 708
Language: English
ACCESSION: WOS:000382255100011
DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.2125
PROVIDER: wos
PUBMED: 27398999
PMCID: PMC4990474
Notes: Article -- Source: Wos
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  1. Dinshaw J Patel
    477 Patel
  2. Aiming Ren
    11 Ren
  3. Pu Gao
    12 Gao