lncn_a_1687909_sm4351.pdf (1.3 MB)
Polyethylene glycol molecular crowders enhance the catalytic ability of bimolecular bacterial RNase P ribozymes
journal contribution
posted on 2020-02-10, 14:43 authored by Md. Sohanur Rahman, Mst. Ara Gulshan, Shigeyoshi Matsumura, Yoshiya IkawaThe modular structure of bacterial ribonuclease P (RNase P) ribozymes, which recognize tertiary structures of precursor tRNAs (pre-tRNAs) to cleave their 5′ leader sequence, can be dissected physically into the two structured domain RNAs (S-domain and C-domain). Separately prepared S-domain RNA and C-domain RNA assemble to form bimolecular forms of RNase P ribozymes. We analyzed the effects of polyethylene glycols (PEGs) on pre-tRNA cleavage catalyzed by bimolecular RNase P ribozymes to examine the effects of molecular crowding on the reaction. PEG molecular crowders significantly enhanced the activities of bimolecular RNase P ribozymes, some of which were hardly active without PEGs.