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Tertiary architecture of the Oceanobacillus iheyensis group II intron.

ABSTRACT: Group II introns are large ribozymes that act as self-splicing and retrotransposable RNA molecules. They are of great interest because of their potential evolutionary relationship to the eukaryotic spliceosome, their continued influence on the organization of many genomes in bacteria and eukaryotes, and their potential utility as tools for gene therapy and biotechnology. One of the most interesting features of group II introns is their relative lack of nucleobase conservation and covariation, which has long suggested that group II intron structures are stabilized by numerous unusual tertiary interactions and backbone-mediated contacts. Here, we provide a detailed description of the tertiary interaction networks within the Oceanobacillus iheyensis group IIC intron, for which a crystal structure was recently solved to 3.1 A resolution. The structure can be described as a set of several intricately constructed tertiary interaction nodes, each of which contains a core of extended stacking networks and elaborate motifs. Many of these nodes are surrounded by a web of ribose zippers, which appear to further stabilize local structure. As predicted from biochemical and genetic studies, the group II intron provides a wealth of new information on strategies for RNA folding and tertiary structural organization.

SUBMITTER: Toor N

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2802037 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Tertiary architecture of the Oceanobacillus iheyensis group II intron.

Toor Navtej N Keating Kevin S KS Fedorova Olga O Rajashankar Kanagalaghatta K Wang Jimin J Pyle Anna Marie AM

RNA (New York, N.Y.) 20091201 1

Group II introns are large ribozymes that act as self-splicing and retrotransposable RNA molecules. They are of great interest because of their potential evolutionary relationship to the eukaryotic spliceosome, their continued influence on the organization of many genomes in bacteria and eukaryotes, and their potential utility as tools for gene therapy and biotechnology. One of the most interesting features of group II introns is their relative lack of nucleobase conservation and covariation, wh ...[more]

PMID: 19952115

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Project description:Mobile bacterial group II introns are evolutionary ancestors of spliceosomal introns and retroelements in eukaryotes. They consist of an autocatalytic intron RNA (a "ribozyme") and an intron-encoded reverse transcriptase, which function together to promote intron integration into new DNA sites by a mechanism termed "retrohoming". Although mobile group II introns splice and retrohome efficiently in bacteria, all examined thus far function inefficiently in eukaryotes, where their ribozyme activity is limited by low Mg2+ concentrations, and intron-containing transcripts are subject to nonsense-mediated decay (NMD) and translational repression. Here, by using RNA polymerase II to express a humanized group II intron reverse transcriptase and T7 RNA polymerase to express intron transcripts resistant to NMD, we find that simply supplementing culture medium with Mg2+ induces the Lactococcus lactis Ll.LtrB intron to retrohome into plasmid and chromosomal sites, the latter at frequencies up to ~0.1%, in viable HEK-293 cells. Surprisingly, under these conditions, the Ll.LtrB intron reverse transcriptase is required for retrohoming but not for RNA splicing as in bacteria. By using a genetic assay for in vivo selections combined with deep sequencing, we identified intron RNA mutations that enhance retrohoming in human cells, but <4-fold and not without added Mg2+. Further, the selected mutations lie outside the ribozyme catalytic core, which appears not readily modified to function efficiently at low Mg2+ concentrations. Our results reveal differences between group II intron retrohoming in human cells and bacteria and suggest constraints on critical nucleotide residues of the ribozyme core that limit how much group II intron retrohoming in eukaryotes can be enhanced. These findings have implications for group II intron use for gene targeting in eukaryotes and suggest how differences in intracellular Mg2+ concentrations between bacteria and eukarya may have impacted the evolution of introns and gene expression mechanisms.

Project description:The structure of an uncharacterized member of the enolase superfamily from Oceanobacillus iheyensis (GI 23100298, IMG locus tag Ob2843, PDB entry 2OQY ) was determined by the New York SGX Research Center for Structural Genomics (NYSGXRC). The structure contained two Mg(2+) ions located 10.4 A from one another, with one located in the canonical position in the (beta/alpha)(7)beta-barrel domain (although the ligand at the end of the fifth beta-strand is His, unprecedented in structurally characterized members of the superfamily); the second is located in a novel site within the capping domain. In silico docking of a library of mono- and diacid sugars to the active site predicted a diacid sugar as a likely substrate. Activity screening of a physical library of acid sugars identified galactarate as the substrate (k(cat) = 6.8 s(-1), K(M) = 620 microM, k(cat)/K(M) = 1.1 x 10(4) M(-1) s(-1)), allowing functional assignment of Ob2843 as galactarate dehydratase (GalrD-II). The structure of a complex of the catalytically impaired Y90F mutant with Mg(2+) and galactarate allowed identification of a Tyr 164-Arg 162 dyad as the base that initiates the reaction by abstraction of the alpha-proton and Tyr 90 as the acid that facilitates departure of the beta-OH leaving group. The enzyme product is 2-keto-d-threo-4,5-dihydroxyadipate, the enantiomer of the product obtained in the GalrD reaction catalyzed by a previously characterized bifunctional l-talarate/galactarate dehydratase (TalrD/GalrD). On the basis of the different active site structures and different regiochemistries, we recognize that these functions represent an example of apparent, not actual, convergent evolution of function. The structure of GalrD-II and its active site architecture allow identification of the seventh functionally and structurally characterized subgroup in the enolase superfamily. This study provides an additional example in which an integrated sequence- and structure-based strategy employing computational approaches is a viable approach for directing functional assignment of unknown enzymes discovered in genome projects.

Dataset Information

Tertiary architecture of the Oceanobacillus iheyensis group II intron.

Publications

Tertiary architecture of the Oceanobacillus iheyensis group II intron.

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