Nucleic Acids Research, Vol 24, Issue 14 2685-2689, Copyright © 1996 by Oxford University Press
C Shin, JN Choi, SI Song, JT Song, JH Ahn, JS Lee and YD Choi
In order to understand the catalysis mechanism of the hairpin ribozyme,
mutant ribozymes were constructed. The distance between the loop A domain
and the loop B domain was extended by inserting various lengths of
nucleotide linkers at the hinge region in cis mutants, or the domains were
separated physically in a trans mutant. All the mutant ribozymes, including
the trans mutant, could cleave substrate RNA at the predicted site. A cis
mutant with a single nucleotide insertion exhibited cleavage activity about
twice as high as that of the wild- type (wt) ribozyme. The insertion of 2-5
nucleotides (nt) gradually reduced the activity to the level of the wt
ribozyme. Insertion of a longer linker, up to 11 nt, resulted in the
reduction of activity to one half of that of the wt ribozyme. The ribozyme
with a single nucleotide insertion at the hinge region seems to form a more
suitable conformation for catalysis by three-dimensional fold-back of the
loop B to loop A containing the cleavage site. The trans mutant, in which
the A and B domains were physically separated, maintained a significant
level of activity, suggesting that both domains are necessary for
catalysis, but separable. These results demonstrate that interaction
between the A and B domains results in catalysis.
ARTICLES
The loop B domain is physically separable from the loop A domain in the hairpin ribozyme
Research Center for New BioMaterials in Agriculture, Seoul National University, Suwon, Korea.
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