Catalytic center of an archaeal type 2 ribonuclease H as revealed by X‐ray crystallographic and mutational analyses

The catalytic center of an archaeal Type 2 RNase H has been identified by a combination of X‐ray crystallographic and mutational analyses. The crystal structure of the Type 2 RNase H from Thermococcus kodakaraensis KOD1 has revealed that the N‐terminal major domain adopts the RNase H fold, despite the poor sequence similarity to the Type 1 RNase H. Mutational analyses showed that the catalytic reaction requires four acidic residues, which are well conserved in the Type 1 RNase H and the members of the polynucleotidyl transferase family. Thus, the Type 1 and Type 2 RNases H seem to share a common catalytic mechanism, except for the requirement of histidine as a general base in the former enzyme. Combined with the results from deletion mutant analyses, the structure suggests that the C‐terminal domain of the Type 2 RNase H is involved in the interaction with the DNA/RNA hybrid.