| Nucleic Acids Research | Pages |
Crystal structure of an RNA duplex r(GGGCGCUCC)2 with non-adjacent G·U base pairs
Introduction
Materials And Methods
Synthesis, crystallization and data collection
Structure solution and refinement
Results And Discussion
Overall structure
Structural features of G·U wobble pairs
Hydrogen bonding and crystal packing
Biological implications
Acknowledgements
References
Crystal structure of an RNA duplex r(GGGCGCUCC)2 with non-adjacent G·U base pairs
NDB accession no. AR0011
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
RNA molecules play important roles in life processes, from genetic information storage (1,2) to catalysis (3,4). The G·U wobble hypothesis was proposed by Crick in 1966 to account for the degeneracy of the genetic code (5). In RNA, G·U wobble pairs are frequently found and some are highly conserved (6). The G·U wobble pair in the acceptor stem of Escherichia coli tRNAAla has been shown to be a major determinant for the tRNA identity (7,8) and influence the local helical environment (9). It has been shown that G residue in the exon at the 5[prime]-splice site is used to base pair with U in the internal guide sequence of the intron (10,11). These discoveries highlight the biological importance of G·U wobble pairs. The crystal structure of the wobble pair including other mispairs was first determined in a dodecamer r(GGACUUCGGUCC) (12). Since then, several other structures containing G·U pairs with other mispairs have been reported (13,14). In 1996, we designed an RNA nonamer r(GGGCGCUCC) which can form four possible structures: I, two isolated G·U wobble pairs and six Watson-Crick base pairs; II, two isolated C·U mispairs and six Watson-Crick base pairs; III, two isolated U bulges and eight Watson-Crick base pairs; IV, a five-mispair duplex (Scheme 1). The structure turned out to be I, as predicted by RNAdraw (15), which gives an opportunity to discuss the effect of only the G·U wobble pairs on the double helix.
Scheme 1. Figure 1. (|Fo| - |Fc|) electron density omit map at 2.5[sigma] clearly showing the density for the isolated wobble pairs. (a) G2·U16; (b) U7·G11.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Synthesis, crystallization and data collection
The RNA nonamer r(GGGCGCUCC) was synthesized by the phosphoramidite/TBDMS protocol using our in-house Applied Biosystem Synthesizer 391. The RNA was precipitated by ethanol in the presence of 2.5 M ammonium acetate at -25°C and purified by ion exchange column on FPLC. The sample was lyophilized and crystallized by the hanging drop vapor diffusion method at room temperature. A droplet containing 1 mM RNA (single strand), 25 mM sodium cacodylate buffer (pH 6.0), 1 mM calcium chloride and 0.5 mM spermine tetrachloride was equilibrated against 500 µl 40% MPD in the reservoir. Crystals appeared in 2 weeks and grew to dimensions of 0.2 × 0.2 × 0.5 mm3. A crystal was mounted in a thin-walled glass capillary and sealed with wax. The X-ray data were collected at room temperature on our R-AXIS IIC imaging plate with graphite monochromated CuK[alpha] beam at 50 kV/100 mA. The crystal-to-detector distance was 140 mm and 2[thetas] angle was set to 0°. Twenty-five oscillation frames with 6° [phis]-scan width yielded 1403 independent reflections at 2.5 Å resolution [F [ge] 2.0[sigma](F)]. The frames were processed using the software version 2.1 supplied by the Molecular Structure Corporation. The crystal was in the rhombohedral space group R3 with unit cell constants a = 33.09 Å, [alpha] = 87.30° with one duplex in the asymmetric unit. The volume per base pair is 1337 Å3.
Structure solution and refinement
The nonamer duplex has a similar unit cell constant to the octamer r(GUAUAUA)dC (16) previously done in this laboratory. Using the octamer model, the rotation-translation search showed that the nonamer molecules were in the same position as the octamer; in other words, the structures are isomorphous. Therefore, the octamer was used as the starting model in the refinement by the X-PLOR program (17). The initial rigid body refinement with 358 reflections, from 10 to 4.0 Å, yielded an R-factor of 0.493. Ten percent of randomly selected reflections were used for R-free calculation. Further rigid body refinement dropped the R-factor to 0.432 using 10-2.5 Å reflections. A positional refinement lowered the R-factor to 0.353. The bases in the model were corrected by calculating several cycles of ¦Fo¦ - ¦Fc¦ omit maps (Fig.
Table 1.
| Duplex | r(GGGCGCUCC)2 |
| Space group | R3 |
| Cell constant (Å) | a = b = 45.68, c = 59.95 [gamma] = 120° |
| Asymmetric unit | 1 duplex |
| Resolution range (Å) | 10.0-2.5 |
| Number of reflections [F > 2[sigma](F)] | 1403 |
| Final Rwork/Rfree (%) | 17.5/24.0 |
| Volume/bp (Å3) | 1337 |
| Parameter file | Param_nd.dna (19) |
| Deviations from ideal geometry | |
| Bond length (Å) | 0.010 |
| Angle (°) | 1.4 |
| Dihedral angles (°) | 6.7 |
| Improper angles (°) | 1.4 |
| Final model | |
| Nucleic acid atoms | 346 |
| Water oxygens | 34 |
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Overall structure
The X-ray analysis of the RNA fragment showed that the nonamer adopted the duplex structure I with G·U and U·G base pairs at positions 2 and 7, respectively. The two independent strands in the duplex show an RMSD of 1.02 Å and are related by an approximate 2-fold axis, 178.2° rotation and 0.08 Å translation. The RMSD between the present structure and the model used is 1.50 Å. The 3[prime] overhang cytosines swing out so that the junction base pairs can stack. There are no electron densities for the 3[prime] overhang cytosine nucleosides because they are disordered, but their 3[prime] phosphate groups have clear electron density. The [epsis] angles for the 3[prime]-phosphate groups are larger, 250° on the first strand and 247° on the second strand compared to the average value of 215° for the rest of the nonamer. This increase in the angles of the 3[prime]-phosphates again helps the stacking of the molecules to form infinite helical columns with twist angles of nearly 0° for the junction steps.
Figure 2. A superimposition of the (a) G·U and (b) U·G wobble pairs (filled bonds) in this structure with Watson-Crick G·C and C·G base pairs, respectively (open bonds) in the crystal structure of an A-RNA octamer r(CCCCGGGG). In the wobble pairs, the G is displaced into the minor groove and the U is displaced into the major groove. Figure 3. The hydration of the wobble pairs. (a) G2·U16; (b) U7·G11. A water molecule bridges the N2 of the guanine and O2 of the uridine and also the uridine 2[prime]-hydroxyl group. In (a), N2 of G2 also shows a hydrogen bond to a 2[prime]-hydroxyl group of a symmetry related duplex C15*. Figure 4. (a) Stacking of the Watson-Crick G1:C17 base pair with the G2·U16 wobble pair showing a high twist angle of 37.7°. (b) Stacking of the G2·U16 wobble pair with the G3:C14 Watson-Crick base pair showing a low twist angle of 28.2°. (c) Stacking of the Watson-Crick C6:G12 base pairs and the U7·G11 wobble pair with a low twist angle, 27.27°. (d) Stacking of the U7·G11 wobble pair with the C8:G10 Watson-Crick base pair with a high twist angle, 40.6°. Helical parameters were calculated with CURVES (20). The duplex is slightly over-wound, 10.3 residues per turn, with an average twist of 35 (SD 4)° and a rise of 2.4 (SD 0.4) Å. All sugars are puckered in the C3[prime]-endo conformation and the glycosyl torsion angles are anti. The backbone torsion angles [alpha], [gamma] are in the preferred g-, g+ conformations except residue G5 which assumes the next frequent t, t conformation. The RNA duplex bends by 14° towards the major groove at the G5 step, probably due to the t, t backbone conformation. The other two bends of 17 and 11° occur at the wobble steps. In Lietzkes dodecamer r(GGCGCUUGCGUC) (21), in addition to the non-adjacent G·U wobble pairs, there are two U·U mispairs. The molecule is bent by ~14° at each wobble site and bent by 24 and 21° at the central U·U mispairs. The intrastrand P-P distances in the bending regions are 6.3, 6.1 and 6.0 Å, respectively, compared to the average value in this structure of 5.6 Å. Similar longer intrastrand P-P distances are also found in the RNA 16mer (22) and the tandem U·G/G·U structure (23). The starting model used has only Watson-Crick base pairs and shows two bends 14 and 6° (16) which may be attributed to t, t conformation in the vicinity of the base pair steps at the same position of the wobble pairs. Thus the bending in the duplex can either be caused by the wobble pairs or by the sugar-phosphate backbone.
Structural features of G·U wobble pairs
The penultimate G·U wobble pairs are sandwiched by the end Watson-Crick base pairs and the middle four Watson-Crick base pairs. Each G·U pair is linked by two hydrogen bonds (Fig.
Figure 5. (a) View of the crystal packing in the unit cell perpendicular to the c axis. (b) View of the crystal packing in the hexagonal unit cell down the c axis. Table 2.
Twist (°)
Rise (Å)
Tilt (°)
Roll (°)
Propeller twist (°)
G:C
-10.85
37.70
3.25
-1.14
10.34
G:U
-18.75
28.24
3.30
-2.33
12.63
G:C
-16.20
31.16
3.27
3.61
14.00
C:G
-17.59
30.93
3.01
0.16
15.02
G:C
-15.67
30.89
3.34
-2.39
5.99
C:G
-13.62
27.27
3.43
0.18
5.95
U:G
-20.18
40.57
3.48
3.42
3.31
C:G
-12.64
Hydrogen bonding and crystal packing
The 2[prime]-hydroxyl groups in the C3[prime]-endo puckered sugars are in the axial orientation (26). They project into the minor groove and are available to form hydrogen bonds to the adjacent duplexes directly or through water molecules. Figure
a - b
![]() |
c - d
![]() |
Figure 6. Water molecules on the 3-fold axis bridge the neighboring duplexes. (a) Water 202 interacts with O2[prime] of U16 and its symmetry related counter parts. (b) Water 201 interacts with the symmetry related water molecules 112 and 101. Water 101 also interacts with the G2·U16 wobble pair. (c) Water 205 on the 3-fold axis hydrogen bonds with water molecule 102 which in turn interacts with O2[prime] of the symmetry related RNAs. (d) Water 203 hydrogen bonds with anionic oxygen O2P of the phosphate of G5.
Biological implications
Our sequence is self-complementary with the triplet base-paired double helix (GGG/CUC) at both ends. This is found in the acceptor arm of E.coli tRNAAla. The G·U wobble pair is the recognition site for this tRNA and can be changed to other mispairs, e.g. A+·C without affecting the identity of the tRNAAla (22). The tRNAAla identity will be changed if the G·U wobble pair is mutated to a G·C Watson-Crick base pair (27). A+·C does not have the N2 group as in G·U which is also used as the recognition site. It was proposed, therefore, that the conformation changes of the G·U wobble are responsible for the recognition (28). In fact, the chemical shift changes in the NMR spectra (29) of a G·U mispair in the P1 helix and the acceptor arm of tRNAAla (9) have been interpreted as due to the influence of the local helical environment by the G·U pair. In the present structure, we observe that the G·U wobble pairs show distinguishing twist angles, larger propeller twists than that of G·C pairs in this structure. These deviations from the normal Watson-Crick base pair may fulfill the recognition requirement for the proteins.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We gratefully thank the NIH grant GM-17378 and an Ohio Regents Eminent Scholar Endowment for supporting this work. We also acknowledge the partial support for the purchase of an R-axis IIc imaging plate by the Ohio Regents Hayes Investment Fund and the Ohio Regents Eminent Scholar Award to M.S.
REFERENCES
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Last modification: 27 Apr 1999
Copyright©Oxford University Press, 1999.
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