Nucleic Acids Research, Vol 25, Issue 17 3543-3549, Copyright © 1997 by Oxford University Press
AS Sjogren, R Stromberg and BM Sjoberg
The nrdB gene of bacteriophage T4 contains a group IA2 intron. We have
investigated the kinetics of self-splicing by a shortened variant of nrdB
pre-mRNA in the presence of the co-substrates guanosine and 2'-
amino-2'-deoxyguanosine. The pH dependence of the first transesterification
step displayed parallel linear correlations for the two different
co-substrates up to pH 7, above which the reaction with guanosine levels
off to become pH independent. The plot for the 30-fold slower reaction with
2'-aminoguanosine is linear up to pH 8-8.5 and then levels off. The linear
correlations with slopes close to unity suggest that a deprotonation event
accelerates the transesterification reaction and that a change in rate
limiting step occurs at a first order rate constant of approximately 1
min-1(i.e. for our system k cat/ K m approximately 10(5) M-1 min-1). The pH
dependence of observed rate constants in different divalent metal ion
mixtures, where the 2'- aminoguanosine-dependent reaction is enhanced 6-
and 35-fold compared with that in magnesium, strongly supports this
conclusion. This is, to our knowledge, the first report on an intact
self-splicing group I intron where use of different co-substrates and
divalent metal ions shows that a deprotonation enhances the rate and
verifies that the transitions occurring during splicing of group I introns
are all part of a common reaction sequence.
ARTICLES
pH dependence of self-splicing by the group IA2 intron in a pre-mRNA derived from the nrdB gene of bacteriophage T4
Department of Molecular Biology, Stockholm University, S-10691 Stockholm, Sweden.
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