Enhanced specificity against misfolding in a thermostable mutant of the Tetrahymena ribozyme.

ABSTRACT: Structured RNAs encode native conformations that are more stable than the vast ensembles of alternative conformations, but how this specificity is evolved is incompletely understood. Here we show that a variant of the Tetrahymena group I intron ribozyme that was generated previously by in vitro selection for enhanced thermostability also displays modestly enhanced specificity against a stable misfolded structure that is globally similar to the native state, despite the absence of selective pressure to increase the energy gap between these structures. The enhanced specificity for native folding arises from mutations in two nucleotides that are close together in space in the native structure, and additional experiments show that these two mutations do not affect the stability of the misfolde

SUBMITTER: Wan Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3227551 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature