Homoiterons and expansion in ribosomal RNAs.

ABSTRACT: Ribosomal RNAs in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes feature numerous repeats of three or more nucleotides with the same nucleobase (homoiterons). In prokaryotes these repeats are much more frequent in thermophile compared to mesophile or psychrophile species, and have similar frequency in both large RNAs. These features point to use of prokaryotic homoiterons in stabilization of both ribosomal subunits. The two large RNAs of eukaryotic cytoplasmic ribosomes have expanded to a different degree across the evolutionary ladder. The big RNA of the larger subunit (60S LSU) evolved expansion segments of up to 2400 nucleotides, and the smaller subunit (40S SSU) RNA acquired expansion segments of not more than 700 nucleotides. In the examined eukaryotes abundance of rRNA homoiterons generally follows

SUBMITTER: Parker MS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4637361 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature