Abstract
There are a variety of enzymes which cleave the phosphodiester link in ribo- and deoxyribonucleic acids. They exhibit different catalytic activities, different mechanisms of cleavage, and different three-dimensional structures. The best known examples are DNase I which acts upon single and double stranded DNA , staphylococcal nuclease which cleaves P-0 bonds in RNA and DNA single strands2 , and the two RNases A and T1 which cut at the 3′-end of pyrimidine and guanosine nucleotides respectively3-5 . Although the two RNases have different molecular topology, the mechanism of hydrolysis is similar and suggestive of a comparable active site geometry. Since high resolution crystal structures are available (1.5Å for RNase A and 2.oÅ for RNase T1)3-5, a study of the arrangement of the functional amino acids in the1 active sites of the two enzymes is of interest.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
D. Suck, C. Oefner, and W. Kabsch, Three-dimensional structure of bovine pancreatic DNase I at 2.5 A resolution, EMBO J. 3:2423–2430 (1984).
F .A. Cotton, E.A. Hazen, and M.J. Legg, Staphylococcal nuclease: Proposed mechanism of action based on structure of enzyme-thymidine 3’,5’-bisphosphate-calcium ion complex at 1.5 Å-resolution, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. (USA) 76:2551–2555 (1979).
A. Wlodawer, Structure of bovine pancreatic ribonuclease by X-ray and neutron diffraction, pp. 393–439, in “Biological Macromolecules and Assemblies, Vol. II. Nucleic Acids and Interactive Proteins”, F.A. Jurnak and A. McPherson, eds., John Wiley & Sons, New York (1985) .
U. Heinemann and W. Saenger, Specific protein-nucleic acid recognition in ribonuclease T1 -2’-guanylic acid complex: an X-ray study, Nature 299:27–31 (1982).
R. Arni, Ph.D. Thesis Freie Universität Berlin, to be submitted (1986).
S.Y. Wodak, M.Y. Liu, and H.W. Wyckoff, The structure of cytidylyl(2’-5’)adenosine when bound to pancreatic ribonuclease S J. Mol. Biol. 116:855–875 (1977).
U. Heinemann and W. Saenger, Mechanism of guanosine recognition and RNA hydrolysis by ribonuclease T1 , Pure &Appl. Chem. 57:417–422 (1985).
F. Eckstein, Nucleoside phosphothioates, Ann. Rev. Biochem.54:367–402 (1985).
K. Takahashi, The structure and function of ribonuclease T1 . XXI. Modification of histidine residues in ribonuclease T1 with iodoacetamide, J. Biochem. (Tokyo) 80:1267–1275 (1976).
R. Fülling and H. Rüterjans, Proton magnetic resonance studies of ribonuclease T1 . Assignment of histidine-27 C2-H and C5-H proton resonances by a photooxidation reaction, FEBS Lett. 88:279–282 (1978).
F. Egami, T. Oshima, and T. Uchida, Specific interactions of base-specific nucleases with nucleosides and nucleotides, Mol. Biol. Biochem. Biophys. 32:250–277 (1980).
S. Iida and T. Ooi , Titration of ribonuclease T1 , Biochemistry 8:3897–3901 (1969).
C. Hill, G. Dodson, U. Heinemann, W. Saenger, Y. Mitsui, K. Nakamura, S. Borisov, G. Tischenko, K. Polyakov and S. Pavlovsky, The structural and seguence homology of a family of microbial ribonucleases, Trends Biochem. Sci. 8:364–369 (1983).
A. Pähler, A. Banerjee, J.K. Dattagupta, T. Fujiwara, K. Lindner, G.P. Pal, D. Suck, G. Weber and W. Saenger, Three-dimensional structure of fungal proteinase K reveals similarity to bacterial subtilisin, EMBO J. 3:1311–1314 (1984).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1987 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Saenger, W., Arni, R., Maslowska, M., Pähler, A., Heinemann, U. (1987). Ribonucleases A and T1 Comparable Mechanisms of RNA Cleavage with Different Active Site Geometries. In: Moras, D., Drenth, J., Strandberg, B., Suck, D., Wilson, K. (eds) Crystallography in Molecular Biology. NATO ASI Series, vol 126. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-5272-3_29
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-5272-3_29
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4684-5274-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-4684-5272-3
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive