Open AccessCrystallization and preliminary diffraction analysis of a group I ribozyme from bacteriophage Twort
Author(s) -
Chase Elaine,
Golden Barbara L.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
acta crystallographica section f
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1744-3091
DOI - 10.1107/s1744309104028337
Subject(s) - ribozyme , group i catalytic intron , rna , group ii intron , rna splicing , nucleotide , hairpin ribozyme , guanosine , chemistry , intron , crystallography , covalent bond , stereochemistry , biochemistry , organic chemistry , gene
Group I introns are catalytic RNAs that are capable of performing a variety of phosphotransesterification reactions including self‐splicing and RNA cleavage. The reactions are efficient, accurate and dependent only on the presence of guanosine‐nucleotide substrate and sufficient magnesium ion to stabilize the structure of the RNA. To understand how the group I intron active‐site facilitates catalysis, crystals of a 242‐nucleotide ribozyme bound to a four‐nucleotide product RNA have been produced that diffract to 3.6 Å resolution. The space group of these crystals is I 2 1 2 1 2 1 and the unit‐cell parameters are a = 94.6, b = 141.0, c = 210.9 Å. A single heavy‐atom derivative has been synthesized by covalent modification of the product RNA with iodine.