Characterization of RNA-binding properties of the archaeal Hfq-like protein from Methanococcus jannaschii |
| |
Authors: | Alexey Nikulin Alisa Mikhailina Natalia Lekontseva Vitalii Balobanov Ekaterina Nikonova Svetlana Tishchenko |
| |
Affiliation: | Institute of Protein Research, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pushchino, Moscow region, 142290, Russia |
| |
Abstract: | The Sm and Sm-like proteins are widely distributed among bacteria, archaea and eukarya. They participate in many processes related to RNA-processing and regulation of gene expression. While the function of the bacterial Lsm protein Hfq and eukaryotic Sm/Lsm proteins is rather well studied, the role of Lsm proteins in Archaea is investigated poorly. In this work, the RNA-binding ability of an archaeal Hfq-like protein from Methanococcus jannaschii has been studied by X-ray crystallography, anisotropy fluorescence and surface plasmon resonance. It has been found that MjaHfq preserves the proximal RNA-binding site that usually recognizes uridine-rich sequences. Distal adenine-binding and lateral RNA-binding sites show considerable structural changes as compared to bacterial Hfq. MjaHfq did not bind mononucleotides at these sites and would not recognize single-stranded RNA as its bacterial homologues. Nevertheless, MjaHfq possesses affinity to poly(A) RNA that seems to bind at the unstructured positive-charged N-terminal tail of the protein. |
| |
Keywords: | Lsm proteins Hfq archaea RNA–protein interactions translation regulation crystal structure |
|
|