Despite decades of research on the bacterial ribosome, the ribosomal exit tunnel is still poorly understood. Although it has been suggested that the exit tunnel is simply a convenient route of egress for the nascent chain, specific protein sequences serve to slow the rate of translation, suggesting some degree of interaction between the nascent peptide chain and the exit tunnel. To understand how the ribosome interacts with nascent peptide sequences, we synthesized and characterized a novel class of probe molecules. These peptide-macrolide (or "peptolide") conjugates were designed to present unique peptide sequences to the exit tunnel. Biochemical and X-ray structural analyses of the interactions between these probes and the ribosome reveal interesting insights about the exit tunnel. Using translation inhibition and RNA structure probing assays, we find the exit tunnel has a relaxed preference for the directionality (N → C or C → N orientation) of the nascent peptides. Moreover, the X-ray crystal structure of one peptolide derived from a positively charged, reverse Nuclear Localization Sequence peptide, bound to the 70S bacterial ribosome, reveals that the macrolide ring of the peptolide binds in the same position as other macrolides. However, the peptide tail folds over the macrolide ring, oriented toward the peptidyl transferase center and interacting in a novel manner with 23S rRNA residue C2442 and His69 of ribosomal protein L4. These data suggest that these peptolides are viable probes for interrogating nascent peptide-exit tunnel interaction.
Pubmed ID: 25198768 RIS Download
Publication data is provided by the National Library of Medicine ® and PubMed ®. Data is retrieved from PubMed ® on a weekly schedule. For terms and conditions see the National Library of Medicine Terms and Conditions.
Web-based application for analyzing oligonucleotides. Analysis proceeds after the sequence has been entered and the calculations modified based on target type, oligo concentration, sodium ion concentration, magnesium ion concentration, and dNTP concentration.
View all literature mentionsFramework for exploring genetic variation in the context of the genome annotations available for the human genome. Users can load a VCF file into a database and each variant is automatically annotated by comparing it to several genome annotations from source such as ENCODE tracks, UCSC tracks, OMIM, dbSNP, KEGG, and HPRD.
View all literature mentionsA Python-based software suite for the automated determination of molecular structures using X-ray crystallography and other methods. Phenix includes programs for assessing data quality, experimental phasing, molecular replacement, model building, structure refinement, and validation. It also includes tools for reflection data and creating maps and models. Phenix can also be used for neutron crystallography. Tutorials and examples are available in the documentation tab.
View all literature mentions