Suppression of nonsense mutations induced by expression of an RNA complementary to a conserved segment of 23S rRNA

We identified a short RNA fragment, complementary to the Escherichia coli 2 3S rRNA segment comprising nucleotides 735 to 766 (in domain II), which whe n expressed in vivo results in the suppression of UGA nonsense mutations in two reporter genes. Neither UAA nor UAG mutations, examined at the same co don positions, were suppressed by the expression of this antisense rRNA fra gment. Our results suggest that a stable phylogenetically conserved hairpin at nucleotides 736 to 760 in 23S rRNA, which is situated close to the pept idyl transferase center, may participate in one or more specific interactio ns during peptide chain termination.