Cleavage of intron from the standard or non-standard position of the precursor tRNA by the splicing endonuclease of Aeropyrum pernix, a hyper-thermophilic Crenarchaeon, involves a novel RNA recognition site in the Crenarchaea specific loop.

ABSTRACT: In Crenarchaea, several tRNA genes are predicted to express precursor-tRNAs (pre-tRNAs) with canonical or non-canonical introns at various positions. We initially focused on the tRNA(Thr) species of hyperthermophilic crenarchaeon, Aeropyrum pernix (APE) and found that in the living APE cells three tRNA(Thr) species were transcribed and subsequently matured to functional tRNAs. During maturation, introns in two of them were cleaved from standard and non-standard positions. Biochemical studies revealed that the APE splicing endonuclease (APE-EndA) removed both types of introns, including the non-canonical introns, without any nucleotide modification. To clarify the underlying reasons for broad substrate specificity of APE-EndA, we determined the crystal structure of wild-type APE-EndA and su

SUBMITTER: Hirata A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3241643 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature