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Title: Crystal structure of Pistol, a class of self-cleaving ribozyme

Journal Article · · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
 [1];  [1];  [2]
  1. Yale Univ., New Haven, CT (United States)
  2. Yale Univ., New Haven, CT (United States). Howard Hughes Medical Inst. and Dept. of Chemistry

Small self-cleaving ribozymes have been discovered in all evolutionary domains of life. They can catalyze site-specific RNA cleavage, and as a result, they have relevance in gene regulation. Comparative genomic analysis has led to the discovery of a new class of small self-cleaving ribozymes named Pistol. We report herein the crystal structure of Pistol at 2.97-Å resolution. Our results suggest that the Pistol ribozyme self-cleavage mechanism likely uses a guanine base in the active site pocket to carry out the phosphoester transfer reaction. The guanine G40 is in close proximity to serve as the general base for activating the nucleophile by deprotonating the 2'-hydroxyl to initiate the reaction (phosphoester transfer). Furthermore, G40 can also establish hydrogen bonding interactions with the nonbridging oxygen of the scissile phosphate. The proximity of G32 to the O5' leaving group suggests that G32 may putatively serve as the general acid. The RNA structure of Pistol also contains A-minor interactions, which seem to be important to maintain its tertiary structure and compact fold. Our findings expand the repertoire of ribozyme structures and highlight the conserved evolutionary mechanism used by ribozymes for catalysis.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Advanced Photon Source (APS)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; Howard Hughes Medical Institute; National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Grant/Contract Number:
5 F32AI114095-02
OSTI ID:
1343147
Journal Information:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol. 114, Issue 5; ISSN 0027-8424
Publisher:
National Academy of SciencesCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
ENGLISH
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 33 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (17)

Crucial Roles of Two Hydrated Mg 2+ Ions in Reaction Catalysis of the Pistol Ribozyme journal January 2020
Classification of the nucleolytic ribozymes based upon catalytic mechanism journal January 2019
Structural and Biochemical Properties of Novel Self-Cleaving Ribozymes journal April 2017
Molecular Dynamics Analysis of Mg 2+ -dependent Cleavage of a Pistol Ribozyme Reveals a Fail-safe Secondary Ion for Catalysis journal August 2019
Atom-Specific Mutagenesis Reveals Structural and Catalytic Roles for an Active-Site Adenosine and Hydrated Mg 2+ in Pistol Ribozymes journal November 2017
The L-platform/L-scaffold framework: a blueprint for RNA-cleaving nucleic acid enzyme design journal November 2019
Structure-based insights into self-cleavage by a four-way junctional twister-sister ribozyme journal October 2017
Molecular simulations of the pistol ribozyme: unifying the interpretation of experimental data and establishing functional links with the hammerhead ribozyme journal July 2019
Insights into DNA catalysis from structural and functional studies of the 8-17 DNAzyme journal January 2020
Atom-Specific Mutagenesis Reveals Structural and Catalytic Roles for an Active-Site Adenosine and Hydrated Mg 2+ in Pistol Ribozymes journal November 2017
From general base to general acid catalysis in a sodium-specific DNAzyme by a guanine-to-adenine mutation journal July 2019
Dynamical ensemble of the active state and transition state mimic for the RNA-cleaving 8–17 DNAzyme in solution journal September 2019
Direct screening for ribozyme activity in mammalian cells journal January 2017
DSSR-enhanced visualization of nucleic acid structures in Jmol journal May 2017
Hatchet ribozyme structure and implications for cleavage mechanism journal May 2019
Crucial Roles of Two Hydrated Mg 2+ Ions in Reaction Catalysis of the Pistol Ribozyme journal February 2020
Molecular dynamics analysis of Mg 2+ ‐dependent cleavage of a pistol ribozyme reveals a fail‐safe secondary ion for catalysis journal February 2020