Effects of flanking G . C base pairs on internal Watson-Crick, G . U, and nonbonded base pairs within a short ribonucleic acid duplex

A series of pentaribonucleotides, ApGpXpGpU (where X identical to A, G, C, or U), was synthesized to investigate the effects of flanking G . C pairs on internal Watson-Crick, G . U, and nonbonded base pairs. Sequences ApGpApCpU (Tm = 26 degrees C) and ApGpCpCpU (Tm = 25 degrees C) were each found to form a duplex with non-base-paired internal residues that stacked with the rest of the sequence but were not looped out. ApGpGpCpU also forms a duplex (Tm = 30 degrees C) but with dangling terminal nonbonded adenosines rather than internal nonbonded guanosines. ApGpUpCpU prefers a stacked single-strand conformation. In addition, contribution to duplex stability from an internal A . U or G . C base pair is enhanced by 6 degrees C when flanked by G . C base pairs as compared to A . U base pairs. G . C base pairs flanking an internal G . U base pair were found to be more tolerant to the altered conformation of a G . U pair and result in an increase to stability comparable with that found for an internal A . U base pair.     

Hydrogen and hydration of DNA and RNA oligonucleotides

In this paper, hydrogen bonding interaction and hydration in crystal structures of both DNA and RNA oligonucleotides are discussed. Their roles in the formation and stabilization of oligonucleotides have been covered. Details of the Watson-Crick base pairs G.C and A.U in DNA and RNA are illustrated. The geometry of the wobble (mismatched) G.U base pairs and the cis and almost trans conformations of the mismatched U.U base pairs in RNA is described. The difference in hydration of the Watson-Crick base pairs G.C, A.U and the wobble G.U in different sequences of codon-anticodon interaction in double helical molecules are indicative of the effect of hydration. The hydration patterns of the phosphate, the 2'-hydroxyl groups, the water bridges linking the phosphate group, N7 (purine) and N4 of Cs or O4 of Us in the major groove, the water bridges between the 2'-hydroxyl group and N3 (purine) and O2 (pyrimidine) in the minor groove are discussed.     

The G x U wobble base pair. A fundamental building block of RNA structure crucial to RNA function in diverse biological systems

The G x U wobble base pair is a fundamental unit of RNA secondary structure that is present in nearly every class of RNA from organisms of all three phylogenetic domains. It has comparable thermodynamic stability to Watson-Crick base pairs and is nearly isomorphic to them. Therefore, it often substitutes for G x C or A x U base pairs. The G x U wobble base pair also has unique chemical, structural, dynamic and ligand-binding properties, which can only be partially mimicked by Watson-Crick base pairs or other mispairs. These features mark sites containing G x U pairs for recognition by proteins and other RNAs and allow the wobble pair to play essential functional roles in a remarkably wide range of biological processes.     

G/U lesions are efficiently corrected to G/C in SV40 DNA

Cytosine spontaneously deaminates to form uracil, generating G/U pairs in DNA. We studied the repair of these lesions by introducing specific G/U pairs into the genome of SV40 and determining the fate of the mispaired bases in Simian cells. Analysis of 135 plaques obtained after transfection of the modified viral DNA indicates that G/U lesions were repaired to G/C in every case. This result indicates that G/U lesions are corrected with greater efficiency and specificity than any combination of DNA base/base mispairs, in transfected SV40 DNA.     

Unusual duplex formation in purine rich oligodeoxyribonucleotides

The purine rich oligodeoxyribonucleotides 1C, d(ATGACGGAATA) and 2C, d(ATGAGCGAATA) alone exhibit highly cooperative melting transitions. Analysis of the concentration dependence of melting, and electrophoretic studies indicate that these oligomers can form an unusual purine rich offset double helix. The unusual duplex is predicted to contain four A.T, two G.C, and four G.A mismatch base pairs as well as a single A base stacked on the 3' end of each chain of the helix. Other possible models for the duplex are unlikely because they are predicted to contain many base pairs of low stability. Changing the central sequence to CGG or GGG should destabilize the duplex and this is observed. The unusual duplex of 2C is more stable than the duplex of 1C indicating that the stability of G.A base pairs is quite sensitive to the surrounding sequence. Addition of 1C and 2C to their complementary pyrimidine strands results in normal duplexes of similar stability. We feel that the unusual duplexes are significantly stabilized by the intrinsic stacking tendency of purine bases.     

Prediction of pairing schemes in RNA molecules-loop contributions and energy of wobble and non-wobble pairs.

Previously published models for predicting pairing schemes in RNA molecules, when applied to tRNA, give the clover leaf structure in only half the cases. We made a systematic investigation of the predictability of the clover leaf structure under various assumptions concerning the energetic contributions of single and double-stranded regions. We tested 21 different models and variants on a set of 100 tRNA sequences and many other variants on a smaller set of sequences. In our models we allowed not only G.C, A.U and G.U pairing, but also every other pair. Under conditions which are much less restrictive than those of previous attempts, we can nevertheless reach 90 per cent predictability for the clover leaf structure of tRNA. A most surprising and far-reaching result is that we can assign to C.G and C.C pairs binding energies quite close to the energies of G.U pairs, and still predict the clover leaf. The following ranking for non-complementary pairs was obtained : G.U, G.G and C.C, U.U, C.A, A.A and G.A, U.C. The main practical innovation which made possible the improvements in predictability are: i) not counting the stacking of base pairs separated by a bulge loop; ii) making the terminal C.C's in stems more stable than the terminal A.U's by merely -- 0.7 kcal; iii) replacing the distinction between G.C and A.U-closed loops by a distinction based on the presence of loop-favoring residues; iv) carefully adjusting the energetic balance between the various kinds of loops; v) narrowing the gap between the GC/GC and the GC/AU contributions; vi) using observations on nearest-neighbours in tRNA sequences to refine the contributions of G.U pairs.     

Conserved unpaired adenine residues are important for ordered structures of 5S ribosomal RNA. An infrared study of the secondary and tertiary structure of Thermus thermophilus 5S rRNA

An improved set of infrared calibration spectra for the determination of G X C and A X U base pairs leads to 32 +/- 3 G X C (+ G X U) and 4 +/- 1 A X U base pairs for Thermus thermophilus 5S RNA in the presence and absence of Mg2+. These results give further support for the consensus secondary structure of 5S RNA recently proposed by several groups. T. thermophilus 5S RNA shows, in the presence of Mg2+, a distinct two-step thermal melting of its ordered structure. Based on new data about the stacking dependence of infrared intensities of unpaired ribonucleotides the spectral changes of the low-temperature transition should be explained by melting of stacked arrangements of unpaired bases and/or non-standard base pairs. Striking is the reduction in A stacking, which is not related to the melting of A X U base pairs, indicating the importance of the mostly conserved unpaired adenines for the Mg2+ stabilized higher-order structures especially within internal loops of 5S RNA.     

Free energy contributions of G.U and other terminal mismatches to helix stability

Thermodynamic parameters of helix formation were measured spectroscopically for seven hexaribonucleotides containing a GC tetramer core and G.U or other terminal mismatches. The free energies of helix formation are compared with those for the tetramer core alone and with those for the hexamer with six Watson-Crick base pairs. In 1 M NaCl, at 37 degrees C, the free energy of a terminal G.U mismatch is about equal to that of the corresponding A.U pair. Although other terminal mismatches studied add between -1.0 and -1.6 kcal/mol to delta G0 37 for helix formation, all are less stable than the corresponding Watson-Crick pairs. Comparisons of the stability increments for terminal G.U mismatches and G.C pairs suggest when stacking is weak the additional hydrogen bond in the G.C pair adds roughly -1 kcal/mol to the favorable free energy of duplex formation.     

A method for estimating the nearest neighbor base-pair content of RNAs using CD and absorption spectroscopy.

CD and absorption spectra are sensitive to the secondary structure of RNAs. By fitting the spectra contained in our basis set to the CD and absorption spectra of an RNA of known sequence, we could determine the fractions of base pairs, the fractions of each of the nearest neighbor base pairs, and the fractions of the single-stranded nucleotides in that RNA. The basis set included 58 CD and 58 absorption spectra. The fitting was done with a guided selection routine. The estimated error was about 0.05 for predicting the fractions of the nearest neighbor base pairs, 0.06 for predicting the fractions of A.U, G.C, and G.U base pairs, and 0.04 for predicting the fractions of the single-stranded nucleotides.     

Advanced formulation of base pair changes in the stem regions of ribosomal RNAs; its application to mitochondrial rRNAs for resolving the phylogeny of animals

The ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs) of animal mitochondria, especially those of arthropod mitochondria, have a higher content of G:U and U:G base pairs in their stem regions than the nuclear rRNAs. Thus, the theoretical formulation of base pair changes is extended to incorporate the faster base pair changes A:U<-->G:U<-->G:C and U:A<-->U:G<-->C:G into the previous formulation of the slower base pair changes between A:U, G:C, C:G and U:A. The relative base pair change probability containing the faster and slower base pair changes is theoretically derived to estimate the divergence time of rRNAs under the influence of selection for these base pairs. Using the cartilaginous fish-teleost fish divergence and the crustacean-insect divergence as calibration points, the present method successfully predicts the divergence times of the main branches of animals: Deuterostomia and Protostomia diverged 9.2 x 10(8) years ago, the divergence of Echinodermata, Hemichordata and Cephalochordata succeedingly occurred during the period from 8 x 10(8) to 6 x 10(8) years ago, while Arthropoda, Annelida and Mollusca diverged almost concomitantly about 7 x 10(8) years ago. The dating for the divergence of Platyhelminthes and Cnidaria is traced back to 1.2 x 10(9) years ago. This result is consistent with the fossil records in the Stirling Range Formation of southwestern Australia, the Ediacara and Avalon faunas and the Cambrian Burgess Shale. Thus, the present method may be useful for estimating the divergence times of animals ranging from 10(8) to 10(9) years ago, resolving the difficult problems, e.g. deviation from rate constancy and large sampling variances, in the usual methods of treating apparent change rates between individual bases and/or base pairs.     

Crystal structure of human selenocysteine tRNA

Selenocysteine (Sec) is the 21st amino acid in translation. Sec tRNA (tRNA^Sec) has an anticodon complementary to the UGA codon. We solved the crystal structure of human tRNA^Sec. tRNA^Sec has a 9-bp acceptor stem and a 4-bp T stem, in contrast with the 7-bp acceptor stem and the 5-bp T stem in the canonical tRNAs. The acceptor stem is kinked between the U6:U67 and G7:C66 base pairs, leading to a bent acceptor-T stem helix. tRNA^Sec has a 6-bp D stem and a 4-nt D loop. The long D stem includes unique A14:U21 and G15:C20a pairs. The D-loop:T-loop interactions include the base pairs G18:U55 and U16:U59, and a unique base triple, U20:G19:C56. The extra arm comprises of a 6-bp stem and a 4-nt loop. Remarkably, the D stem and the extra arm do not form tertiary interactions in tRNA^Sec. Instead, tRNA^Sec has an open cavity, in place of the tertiary core of a canonical tRNA. The linker residues, A8 and U9, connecting the acceptor and D stems, are not involved in tertiary base pairing. Instead, U9 is stacked on the first base pair of the extra arm. These features might allow tRNA^Sec to be the target of the Sec synthesis/incorporation machineries.     

The C-A mismatch base pair and the single-strand terminus in the E. coli initiator tRNA(fMet) acceptor stem adopt unusual conformations

Acceptor stem variants of tRNA(fMet) (Escherichia coli) have been characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance. The wild type contains a C1-A72 mismatch pair which is crucial for its biological function. For comparison, the mismatch was replaced by regular pairs U1-A72 and C1-G72. Further variants contain an altered discriminator base, G73, or a G1-C72/U73 combination. The stems of variants U1-A72/A73 and C1-G72/A73 have A-RNA geometry, which extends essentially to the single-strand terminus. C1-A72/G73 variant and wild type are structurally almost identical. C1 and A72 adopt peculiar conformations with C1 being largely destacked with respect to G2, while A73 stacks upon C1. The unique arrangement of the mismatch causes a distinctly different orientation of the single-strand terminus compared to variants with regular 1-72 base pairs, and to formyltransferase-complexed tRNA(fMet).     

Effects of bulge composition and flanking sequence on the kinking of DNA by bulged bases

We recently showed that bulged bases kink duplex DNA, with the degree of kinking increasing in roughly equal increments as the number of bases in the bulge increases from one to four [Hsieh, C.-H., & Griffith, J.D. (1989) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 86, 4833-4837]. Here we have examined the kinking of DNA by single A, C, G, or T bulges with different neighboring base pairs. Synthetic 30 base pair (bp) duplex DNAs containing 2 single-base bulges spaced by 10 bp were ligated head to tail, and their electrophoretic behavior in highly cross-linked gels was examined. All bulge-containing DNAs showed marked electrophoretic retardations as compared to non-bulge-containing DNA. Regardless of the sequence of the flanking base pairs, purine bulges produced greater retardations than pyrimidine bulges. Furthermore, C and T bulges produced the same retardations as did G and A bulges. Bulged DNA containing different flanking base pairs showed marked differences in electrophoretic mobility. For C-bulged DNA, the greatest retardations were observed with G.C neighbors, the least with T.A neighbors, and an intermediate amount with a mixture of neighboring base pairs. For A-bulged DNA, the retardations were greatest with G.C neighbors, less with T.A neighbors, even less with a mixture of neighboring base pairs, and finally least with C.G neighbors. Thus flanking base pairs affect C-bulged DNA and A-bulged DNA differently, and G.C and C.G flanking base pairs were seen to have very different effects. These results imply an important role of base stacking in determining how neighboring base pairs influence the kinking of DNA by a single-base bulge.     

Crystal structure of an RNA duplex r(G GCGC CC)2 with non-adjacent G*U base pairs

The crystal structure of a self-complementary RNA duplex r(GGGCGCUCC)2with non-adjacent G*U and U*G wobble pairs separated by four Watson-Crick base pairs has been determined to 2.5 A resolution. Crystals belong to the space group R3; a = 33.09 A,alpha = 87.30 degrees with a pseudodyad related duplex in the asymmetric unit. The structure was refined to a final Rworkof 17.5% and Rfreeof 24.0%. The duplexes stack head-to-tail forming infinite columns with virtually no twist at the junction steps. The 3'-terminal cytosine nucleosides are disordered and there are no electron densities, but the 3' penultimate phosphates are observed. As expected, the wobble pairs are displaced with guanine towards the minor groove and uracil towards the major groove. The largest twist angles (37.70 and 40.57 degrees ) are at steps G1*C17/G2*U16 and U7*G11/C8*G10, while the smallest twist angles (28.24 and 27.27 degrees ) are at G2*U16/G3*C15 and C6*G12/U7*G11 and conform to the pseudo-dyad symmetry of the duplex. The molecule has two unequal kinks (17 and 11 degrees ) at the wobble sites and a third kink at the central G5 site which may be attributed to trans alpha (O5'-P), trans gamma (C4'-C5') backbone conformations. The 2'-hydroxyl groups in the minor groove form inter-column hydrogen bonding, either directly or through water molecules.     

Isoalloxazine derivatives promote photocleavage of natural RNAs at G.U base pairs embedded within helices.

We have recently shown that isoalloxazine derivatives are able to photocleave RNA specifically at G.U base pairs embedded within a helical stack. The reaction involves the selective molecular recognition of G.U base pairs by the isoalloxazine ring and the removal of one nucleoside downstream of the uracil residue. Divalent metal ions are absolutely required for cleavage. Here we extend our studies to complex natural RNA molecules with known secondary and tertiary structures, such as tRNAs and a group I intron (td). G.U pairs were cleaved in accordance with the phylogenetically and experimentally derived secondary and tertiary structures. Tandem G.U pairs or certain G.U pairs located at a helix extremity were not affected. These new cleavage data, together with the RNA crystal structure, allowed us to perform molecular dynamics simulations to provide a structural basis for the observed specificity. We present a stable structural model for the ternary complex of the G. U-containing helical stack, the isoalloxazine molecule and a metal ion. This model provides significant new insight into several aspects of the cleavage phenomenon, mechanism and specificity for G. U pairs. Our study shows that in large natural RNAs a secondary structure motif made of an unusual base pair can be recognized and cleaved with high specificity by a low molecular weight molecule. This photocleavage reaction thus opens up the possibility of probing the accessibility of G.U base pairs, which are endowed with specific structural and functional roles in numerous structured and catalytic RNAs and interactions of RNA with proteins, in folded RNAs.     

Repair of deaminated base damage by Schizosaccharomyces pombe thymine DNA glycosylase

Thymine DNA glycosylases (TDG) in eukaryotic organisms are known for their double-stranded glycosylase activity on guanine/uracil (G/U) base pairs. Schizosaccharomyces pombe (Spo) TDG is a member of the MUG/TDG family that belongs to a uracil DNA glycosylase superfamily. This work investigates the DNA repair activity of Spo TDG on all four deaminated bases: xanthine (X) and oxanine (O) from guanine, hypoxanthine (I) from adenine, and uracil from cytosine. Unexpectedly, Spo TDG exhibits glycosylase activity on all deaminated bases in both double-stranded and single-stranded DNA in the descending order of X > I > U  O. In comparison, human TDG only excises deaminated bases from G/U and, to a much lower extent, A/U and G/I base pairs. Amino acid substitutions in motifs 1 and 2 of Spo TDG show a significant impact on deaminated base repair activity. The overall mutational effects are characterized by a loss of glycosylase activity on oxanine in all five mutants. L157I in motif 1 and G288M in motif 2 retain xanthine DNA glycosylase (XDG) activity but reduce excision of hypoxanthine and uracil, in particular in C/I, single-stranded hypoxanthine (ss-I), A/U, and single-stranded uracil (ss-U). A proline substitution at I289 in motif 2 causes a significant reduction in XDG activity and a loss of activity on C/I, ss-I, A/U, C/U, G/U, and ss-U. S291G only retains reduced activity on T/I and G/I base pairs. S163A can still excise hypoxanthine and uracil in mismatched base pairs but loses XDG activity, making it the closest mutant, functionally, to human TDG. The relationship among amino acid substitutions, binding affinity and base recognition is discussed.     

RNA hairpin loop stability depends on closing base pair.

Thermodynamic parameters are reported for hairpin formation in 1 M NaCl by RNA sequences of the type GGXAUAAUAYCC, where X and Y are CG, GC, AU, UA, GU, or UG. A nearest neighbor analysis of the data indicates the free energy change for loop formation at 37 degrees C, delta degrees Gl,37, averages 3.4 kcal/mol for hairpin loops closed with C.G, G.C, and G.U pairs. In contrast, delta G degree l,37 averages 4.6 kcal/mol for loops closed with A.U, U.A, or U.G pairs. Thus the stability of an RNA hairpin depends on the closing base pair. The hairpin with a GA mismatch that is formed by GGCGUAAUAGCC is more stable than the corresponding hairpin with an AA mismatch. Thus hairpin stability also depends on loop sequence. These effects are not included in current algorithms for prediction of RNA structure from sequence.     

Demonstration of the GC-rich common arm in yeast ribosomal 5.8S RNA via 500-MHz proton nuclear magnetic resonance and Overhauser enhancements

In this paper we report the first 1H NMR study of the base-paired secondary structure of yeast 5.8S RNA. On the basis of a combination of homonuclear Overhauser enhancements and temperature dependence of the proton 500-MHz NMR spectrum, we are able to identify and assign eight of the nine base pairs in the most thermally stable helical arm: G116.C137-C117.G136-C118.G135- C119.G134-C120.G133-U121.G132- U122.A131-G123.C130. This arm contains an unusually temperature-stable (to 71 degrees C) segment of four consecutive G.C base pairs. This work constitutes the most direct evidence to date for the existence and base-pair sequence of the GC-rich helix, which is common to most currently popular secondary structural models for eukaryotic 5.8S ribosomal RNA.