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Cover Picture: RNA‐Directed Amino Acid Coupling as a Model Reaction for Primitive Coded Translation (ChemBioChem 6/2014)
Author(s) -
Harada Kazuo,
Aoyama Shoko,
Matsugami Akimasa,
Kumar Penmetcha K. R.,
Katahira Masato,
Kato Nobuo,
Ohkanda Junko
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
chembiochem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.05
H-Index - 126
eISSN - 1439-7633
pISSN - 1439-4227
DOI - 10.1002/cbic.201490016
Subject(s) - rna , stacking , chemistry , hydrogen bond , amino acid , ribozyme , stereochemistry , crystallography , molecule , translation (biology) , base pair , nucleotide , biochemistry , dna , messenger rna , organic chemistry , gene
The cover picture shows the NMR structure of the Tat aptamer RNA (the ribose–phosphate backbone of the RNA is shown as a blue ribbon representation) in complex with two argininamide molecules (upper right) and details of the RNA–amino acid interactions (lower left). On p. 794 ff., K. Harada et al. reveal the NMR structure of this complex. The U bases (U7 and U23) in the bulges form U:A:U base triplets accompanied by coaxial stacking of the stems, and this forms a binding pocket for the two argininamide molecules (red). The guanidinium side chain can thus donate hydrogen bonds to the O6 and N7 groups on the G bases (G9 and G25) in the major groove. The formulae on the lower left show how the guanidinium groups of the arginines are hydrogen bonded to the Hoogsteen sites of G9 and G25, thus positioning the two amino acids for peptide bond formation using an activating agent.