Skip Navigation



Nucleic Acids Research Advance Access published online on July 25, 2007
Nucleic Acids Research, doi:10.1093/nar/gkm546
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow Print PDF (3593K) Freely available
Right arrow Screen PDF (389K) Freely available
Right arrow Supplementary Material
Right arrowOA All Versions of this Article:
35/15/5108    most recent
gkm546v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Commercial Re-use Guidelines
for Open Access NAR Content
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Kouvela, E. C
Right arrow Articles by Kalpaxis, D. L.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Kouvela, E. C
Right arrow Articles by Kalpaxis, D. L.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© 2007 The Author(s)
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

RNA

Changes in the conformation of 5S rRNA cause alterations in principal functions of the ribosomal nanomachine

Ekaterini C Kouvela, George V. Gerbanas, Maria A. Xaplanteri, Alexandros D. Petropoulos, George P. Dinos and Dimitrios L. Kalpaxis*

Laboratory of Biochemistry, School of Medicine, University of Patras, GR-26500 Patras, Greece

*To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: +302610 996124; Fax: +302610969167; Email: dimkal{at}med.upatras.gr

Received April 12, 2007. Revised June 11, 2007. Accepted July 4, 2007.

5S rRNA is an integral component of the large ribosomal subunit in virtually all living organisms. Polyamine binding to 5S rRNA was investigated by cross-linking of N1-azidobenzamidino (ABA)-spermine to naked 5S rRNA or 50S ribosomal subunits and whole ribosomes from Escherichia coli cells. ABA-spermine cross-linking sites were kinetically measured and their positions in 5S rRNA were localized by primer extension analysis. Helices III and V, and loops A, C, D and E in naked 5S rRNA were found to be preferred polyamine binding sites. When 50S ribosomal subunits or poly(U)-programmed 70S ribosomes bearing tRNAPhe at the E-site and AcPhe-tRNA at the P-site were targeted, the susceptibility of 5S rRNA to ABA-spermine was greatly reduced. Regardless of 5S rRNA assembly status, binding of spermine induced significant changes in the 5S rRNA conformation; loop A adopted an apparent ‘loosening’ of its structure, while loops C, D, E and helices III and V achieved a more compact folding. Poly(U)-programmed 70S ribosomes possessing 5S rRNA cross-linked with spermine were more efficient than control ribosomes in tRNA binding, peptidyl transferase activity and translocation. Our results support the notion that 5S rRNA serves as a signal transducer between regions of 23S rRNA responsible for principal ribosomal functions.

The authors wish it to be known that, in their opinion, the first two authors should be regarded as joint First Authors.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 RNAHome page
A. Smirnov, I. Tarassov, A.-M. Mager-Heckel, M. Letzelter, R. P. Martin, I. A. Krasheninnikov, and N. Entelis
Two distinct structural elements of 5S rRNA are needed for its import into human mitochondria
RNA, April 1, 2008; 14(4): 749 - 759.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.