Jg. Mattsson et al., CHARACTERIZATION OF THE BORRELIA-BURGDORFERI RNASE-P RNA GENE REVEALSA NOVEL TERTIARY INTERACTION, Journal of Molecular Biology, 241(1), 1994, pp. 1-6
Characterization of the RNase P RNA gene derived from Borrelia burgdor
feri reveals covariation of the conserved nucleotides at positions cor
responding to nucleotides 128 and 230 in Escherichia coli RNase P RNA
(M1 RNA). Single base substitutions at either of these positions in M1
RNA resulted in a lack of complementation of the temperature-sensitiv
e phenotype associated with rnpA49 in vivo whereas complementation was
observed for the double mutant M1 RNA or wild-type M1 RNA. Our in vit
ro data showed that M1 RNA harbouring a substitution at 128 or 230 cle
aved a tRNA precursor both in the absence and presence of C5 with redu
ced efficiency compared to the wild-type and the double mutant M1 RNA,
We conclude that the nucleotides at positions 128 and 230 establish a
long-range tertiary interaction in RNase P RNA. Our data also suggest
that this interaction together with the identity of the nucleotide at
position 230 is important for Pb2+ induced cleavage at specific posit
ions in M1 RNA.