Structure and stability of variants of the sarcin-ricin loop of 28S rRNA: NMR studies of the prokaryotic SRL and a functional mutant

NMR has been used to examine the conformational properties of two variants of the sarcin-ricin loop (SRL) from eukaryotic 28S rRNA, which is essential for elongation factor interactions with the ribosome: (1) its bacterial homologue, which lacks two of the bases that flank the conserved 12-nt sequence in the middle of the SRL, but which is functionally equivalent, and (2) a functionally active variant of the eukaryotic SRL in which the bulged G within the conserved sequence is replaced by an A. The data indicate that, although the bacterial SRL is less stable than the eukaryotic SRL, its conformation is closely similar. Furthermore, even though replacement of the bulged G in the SRL with an A seriously destabilizes the center of the loop, its effect on the overall conformation of the SRL appears to be modest. In the course of this work, it was serendipitously discovered that at neutral pH, the C8 proton of the bulged G, in both PRO-SRL and E73, exchanges about 10 times faster than it does in GMP.