Open AccessA General Secondary‐Structure Model for Procaryotic and Eucaryotic RNAs of the Small Ribosomal Subunits
Author(s) -
STIEGLER Patrick,
CARBON Philippe,
EBEL JeanPierre,
EHRESMANN Chantal
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
european journal of biochemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1432-1033
pISSN - 0014-2956
DOI - 10.1111/j.1432-1033.1981.tb05727.x
Subject(s) - ribosomal rna , rna , protein secondary structure , 5.8s ribosomal rna , biology , ribosomal protein , 5s ribosomal rna , non coding rna , ribosome , computational biology , protein subunit , eukaryotic large ribosomal subunit , genetics , biochemistry , gene
A onsensus on the folding of the Escherihia coli 16‐S ribosomal RNA is emerging and several complete nucleotide sequences of small ribosomal subunit RNAs, covering diverse types of organisms and organelles, are now available. We therfore investigated the extent of both nucleotide sequence and secondary structure conservation that may exist between the E. coli 16‐S RNA and other ribosomal RNAs. All the RNA molecules examined could be folded into secondary structure schemes that illustrated remarkable preservation of many structural motifs as well as striking nucleotide sequence conservation compared with the E. coli molecule. This study presents a unitary scheme for the structural organization of the small ribosomal subunit RNAs. The evolutionary constraints on both primary and secondary structures most likely reveal the basic role of some restricted RNA regions in the function of the rebosome.