SRP-RNA sequence alignment and secondary structure.

The secondary structures of the RNAs from the signal recognition particle, termed SRP-RNA, were derived buy comparative analyses of an alignment of 39 sequences. The models are minimal in that only base pairs are included for which there is comparative evidence. The structures represent refinements of earlier versions and include a new short helix.     

Nucleotide sequence and presumed secondary structure of the 28S rRNA of pea aphid implication for diversification of insect rRNA

Determination of the entire nucleotide sequence of the aphid 28S ribosomal RNA gene (28S rDNA) revealed that it is 4,147 by in length with a G + C content of 60.3%. Based on the nucleotide sequence, we constructed a presumed secondary-structure model of the aphid 28S rRNA which indicated that the aphid 28S rRNA is characterized by the length and high G + C content of its variable regions. The G + C content of the aphid's variable regions was much higher than that of the entire sequence of the 28S rRNA, which formed a striking contrast to those ofDrosophila with the G + C content much lower than the entire 28S molecule. In this respect, the aphid 28S rRNA somewhat resembled those of vertebrates. This is the third report of a complete large-subunit rRNA sequence from an arthropod, and the first 28S rRNA sequence for a nondipterous insect. Correspondence to: H. Ishikawa     

Nucleotide sequence and secondary structure of 5S rRNA from Sphingobium chungbukense DJ77

The 5S rRNA gene from Sphingobium chungbukense DJ77 was identified. The secondary structure of the 199-base-long RNA was proposed. The two-base-long D loop was the shortest among all of the known 5S rRNAs. The U19-U64 non-canonical pair in the helix II region was uniquely found in strain DJ77 among all of the sphingomonads.     

Sequence and secondary structure of mouse 28S rRNA 5''terminal domain. Organisation of the 5.8S-28S rRNA complex.

We present the sequence of the 5' terminal 585 nucleotides of mouse 28S rRNA as inferred from the DNA sequence of a cloned gene fragment. The comparison of mouse 28S rRNA sequence with its yeast homolog, the only known complete sequence of eukaryotic nucleus-encoded large rRNA (see ref. 1, 2) reveals the strong conservation of two large stretches which are interspersed with completely divergent sequences. These two blocks of homology span the two segments which have been recently proposed to participate directly in the 5.8S-large rRNA complex in yeast (see ref. 1) through base-pairing with both termini of 5.8S rRNA. The validity of the proposed structural model for 5.8S-28S rRNA complex in eukaryotes is strongly supported by comparative analysis of mouse and yeast sequences: despite a number of mutations in 28S and 5.8S rRNA sequences in interacting regions, the secondary structure that can be proposed for mouse complex is perfectly identical with yeast's, with all the 41 base-pairings between the two molecules maintained through 11 pairs of compensatory base changes. The other regions of the mouse 28S rRNA 5'terminal domain, which have extensively diverged in primary sequence, can nevertheless be folded in a secondary structure pattern highly reminiscent of their yeast' homolog. A minor revision is proposed for mouse 5.8S rRNA sequence.     

Conserved structural motifs in intracellular trafficking pathways: structure of the gammaCOP appendage domain

The formation of coated vesicles is a fundamental step in many intracellular trafficking pathways. COPI and clathrin represent two important and distinct sets of vesicle coating machinery, involved primarily in mediating intra-Golgi and endocytic transport, respectively. Here we identify an important functional region at the carboxyl terminus of the gamma subunit of the COPI complex (gammaCOP) and describe the X-ray crystal structure of this domain at 2.3 A resolution. This domain of gammaCOP exhibits unexpected structural similarity to the carboxyl-terminal appendage domains of the alpha and beta subunits of the AP2 adaptor proteins, integral components of clathrin-coated vesicles. The remarkable structural conservation exhibited by the gammaCOP appendage domain, coupled with functional data and primary sequence analysis, supports a model of COPI function with significant structural and mechanistic parallels to vesicular transport by the clathrin/AP2 system.     

Nucleotide sequence of Citrus limon 26S rRNA gene and secondary structure model of its RNA

The complete nucleotide sequence of Citrus limon 26S rDNA has been determined. The sequence has been aligned with large ribosomal RNA (L-rRNA) sequences of Escherichia coli, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Oryza sativa. Nine extensive expansion segments in dicot 26S rRNA relative to E. coli 23S rRNA have been identified and compared with analogous segments of monocot, yeast, amphibian and human L-rRNAs. A secondary structure model for lemon 26S rRNA has been derived based on the refined model of E. coli 23S rRNA. It has been compared with other eukaryotic L-rRNAs models in terms of location of functionally important regions. Origin and evolution of L-rRNA expansion segments are discussed.     

Nuclease S1 analysis of eubacterial 5S rRNA secondary structure

Summary Single-strand-specific nuclease S₁ was employed as a structural probe to confirm locations of unpaired nucleotide bases in 5S rRNAs purified from prokaryotic species of rRNA superfamily I. Limited nuclease S₁ digests of 3- and 5-end-labeled [³²P]5S rRNAs were electrophoresed in parallel with reference endoribonuclease digests on thin allel with reference endoribonuclease digests on thin sequencing gels. Nuclease S₁ primary hydrolysis patterns were comparable for 5S rRNAs prepared from all 11 species examined in this study. The locations of base-paired regions determined by enzymatic analysis corroborate the general features of the proposed universal five-helix model for prokaryotic 5S rRNA, although the results of this study suggest a significant difference between prokaryotic and eukaryotic 5S rRNAs in the evolution of helix IV. Furthermore, the extent of base-pairing predicted by helix IV needs to be reevaluated for eubacterial species. Clipping patterns in helices II and IV appear to be consistent with a secondary structural model that undergoes a conformational rearrangement between two (or more) structures. Primary clipping patterns in the helix II region, obtained by S₁ analysis, may provide useful information concerning the tertiary structure of the 5S rRNA molecule.     

Cloning and sequence analysis of the 18 S ribosomal RNA gene of tomato and a secondary structure model for the 18 S rRNA of angiosperms

Summary The gene of a cytoplasmic 18 S ribosomal RNA (18 S rDNA) of the dicotyledonous plant tomato (ycopersicon esculentum) cv. Rentita has been cloned, and its complete primary structure has been determined. The tomato 18 S rDNA is 1805 by long with a G+C content of 49.6%. Its sequence exhibits 94%–96% positional identity when it is colinearly aligned with the previously reported sequences of the 17–18 S rDNAs of the dicot soybean and the monocots maize and rice. A model of the secondary structure of the 18 S rRNA of angiosperms is presented and its genera-specific structural features are compared with a current eukaryotic 18 S rRNA consensus model.     

Information on the secondary structure improves the quality of protein sequence alignment

The most popular algorithms employed in the pairwise alignment of protein primary structures (Smith-Watermann (SW) algorithm, FASTA, BLAST, etc.) only analyze the amino acid sequence. The SW algorithm is the most accurate, yielding alignments that agree best with superimpositions of the corresponding spatial structures of proteins. However, even the SW algorithm fails to reproduce the spatial structure alignment when the sequence identity is lower than 30%. The objective of this work was to develop a new and more accurate algorithm taking the secondary structure of proteins into account. The alignments generated by this algorithm and having the maximal weight with the secondary structure considered proved to be more accurate than SW alignments. With sequences having less than 30% identity, the accuracy (i.e., the portion of reproduced positions of a reference alignment obtained by superimposing the protein spatial structures) of the new algorithm is 58 vs. 35% of the SW algorithm. The accuracy of the new algorithm is much the same with secondary structures established experimentally or predicted theoretically. Hence, the algorithm is applicable to proteins with unknown spatial structures. The program is available at ftp://194.149.64.196/STRUSWER/.     

Capturing greater 16S rRNA gene sequence diversity within the domain Bacteria

A large proportion of "universal" 16S PCR primers lack sequence homology to many of the "candidate" divisions, severely limiting bacterial diversity assessments. We designed a primer set that offers a 50% increase in silico in coverage of the domain Bacteria over the commonly used primer combination 27F/519R. Comparisons using pyrosequencing on soil environments showed a significant increase in recovery of taxonomic diversity with around a 3-fold increase in recovery of sequences from candidate divisions.     

Flow cytometry-assisted cloning of specific sequence motifs from complex 16S rRNA gene libraries

A flow cytometry method was developed for rapid screening and recovery of cloned DNA containing common sequence motifs. This approach, termed fluorescence-activated cell sorting-assisted cloning, was used to recover sequences affiliated with a unique lineage within the Bacteroidetes not abundant in a clone library of environmental 16S rRNA genes.     

The primary and secondary structure of yeast 26S rRNA.

We present the sequence of the 26S rRNA of the yeast Saccharomyces carlsbergensis as inferred from the gene sequence. The molecule is 3393 nucleotides long and consists of 48% G+C; 30 of the 43 methyl groups can be located in the sequence. Starting from the recently proposed structure of E. coli 23S rRNA (see ref. 25) we constructed a secondary structure model for yeast 26S rRNA. This structure is composed of 7 domains closed by long-range base pairings as n the bacterial counterpart. Most domains show considerable conservation of the overall structure; unpaired regions show extended sequence homology and the base-paired regions contain many compensating base pair changes. The extra length of the yeast molecule is due to a number of insertions in most of the domains, particularly in domain II. Domain VI, which is extremely conserved, is probably part of the ribosomal A site. alpha-Sarcin, which apparently inhibits the EF-1 dependent binding of aminoacyl-tRNA, causes a cleavage between position 3025 and 3026 in a conserved loop structure, just outside domain VI. Nearly all of the located methyl groups, like in E. coli, are present in domain II, V and VI and clustered to a certain extent mainly in regions with a strongly conserved primary structure. The only three methyl groups of 26S rRNA which are introduced relatively late during the processing are found in single stranded loops in domain VI very close to positions which have been shown in E. coli 23S rRNA to be at the interface of the ribosome.     

Sequence and secondary structure of the central domain ofDrosophila 26S rRNA: A universal model for the central domain of the large rRNA containing the region in which the central break may happen

Summary An 890-bp sequence from the central region ofDrosophila melanogaster 26S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) has been determined and used in an extensive comparative analysis of the central domain of the large subunit ribosomal RNA (lrRNA) from prokaryotes, organelles, and eukaryotes. An alignment of these different sequences has allowed us to precisely map the regions of the central domain that have highly diverged during evolution. Using this sequence comparison, we have derived a secondary structure model of the central domain ofDrosophila 26S ribosomal RNA (rRNA). We show that a large part of this model can be applied to the central domain of lrRNA from prokaryotes, eukaryotes, and organelles, therefore defining a universal common structural core. Likewise, a comparative study of the secondary structure of the divergent regions has been performed in several organisms. The results show that, despite a nearly complete divergence in their length and sequence, a common structural core is also present in divergent regions. In some organisms, one or two of the divergent regions of the central domain are removed by processing events. The sequence and structure of these regions (fragmentation spacers) have been compared to those of the corresponding divergent regions that remain part of the mature rRNA in other species.     

Evolutionary change in 5S rRNA secondary structure and a phylogenic tree of 352 5S rRNA species

The secondary structure models of 5S rRNA have been constructed from the primary structure of 352 5S rRNA species available at present. All the 5S rRNAs examined can take essentially the same secondary structure, however they reveal characteristic differences between eukaryotes, metabacteria (= archaebacteria) and eubacteria. These three types of models can be further subgrouped by minor but characteristic differences. A phylogenic tree of organisms has been constructed using these 5S rRNA sequences by the weighted pairing method (WPG method). The tree reveals that there exist several major groups of eubacteria which seem to have diverged into different directions in the early stages of bacterial evolution. After emergence of eubacteria, metabacteria and eukaryotes separated from each other from their common ancestor. In the eukaryotic evolution, red algae (Rhodophyta) emerged first, and thereafter, thraustocytrids-Proctista, Ascomycota, green plants (green algae and land plants), Basidiomycota, Chromophyta (brown algae, diatoms and golden-yellow algae), slime- and water molds, various protozoans, and animals emerged in this order.     

The secondary structure of human 28S rRNA: The structure and evolution of a mosaic rRNA gene

Summary We have determined the secondary structure of the human 28S rRNA molecule based on comparative analysis of available eukaryotic cytoplasmic and prokaryotic large-rRNA gene sequences. Examination of large-rRNA sequences of both distantly and closely related species has enabled us to derive a structure that accounts both for highly conserved sequence tracts and for previously unanalyzed variable-sequence tracts that account for the evolutionary differences in size among the large rRNAs.Human 28S rRNA is composed of two different types of sequence tracts: conserved and variable. They differ in composition, degree of conservation, and evolution. The conserved regions demonstrate a striking constancy of size and sequence. We have confirmed that the conserved regions of large-rRNA molecules are capable of forming structures that are superimposable on one another. The variable regions contain the sequences responsible for the 83% increase in size of the human large-rRNA molecule over that ofEscherichia coli. Their locations in the gene are maintained during evolution. They are G+C rich and largely nonhomologous, contain simple repetitive sequences, appear to evolve by frequent recombinational events, and are capable of forming large, stable hairpins.The secondary-structure model presented here is in close agreement with existing prokaryotic 23S rRNA secondary-structure models. The introduction of this model helps resolve differences between previously proposed prokaryotic and eukaryotic large-rRNA secondary-structure models.     

SSEP-Domain: protein domain prediction by alignment of secondary structure elements and profiles

MOTIVATION: The prediction of protein domains is a crucial task for functional classification, homology-based structure prediction and structural genomics. In this paper, we present the SSEP-Domain protein domain prediction approach, which is based on the application of secondary structure element alignment (SSEA) and profile-profile alignment (PPA) in combination with InterPro pattern searches. SSEA allows rapid screening for potential domain regions while PPA provides us with the necessary specificity for selecting significant hits. The combination with InterPro patterns allows finding domain regions without solved structural templates if sequence family definitions exist. RESULTS: A preliminary version of SSEP-Domain was ranked among the top-performing domain prediction servers in the CASP 6 and CAFASP 4 experiments. Evaluation of the final version shows further improvement over these results together with a significant speed-up. AVAILABILITY: The server is available at http://www.bio.ifi.lmu.de/SSEP/