title: Base and sugar requirements for RNA cleavage of essential nucleoside residues in internal loop B of the hairpin ribozyme: implications for secondary structure.
abstract: The hairpin ribozyme is a small self-cleaving RNA that can be engineered for RNA cleavage in trans and has potential as a therapeutic agent. We have used a chemical synthesis approach to study the requirements of hairpin RNA cleavage for sugar and base moieties in residues of internal loop B, an essential region in one of the two ribozyme domains. Individual nucleosides were substituted by either a 2'-deoxy-nucleoside, an abasic residue, or a C3-spacer (propyl linker) and the abilities of the modified ribozymes to cleave an RNA substrate were studied in comparison with the wild-type ribozyme. From these results, together with previous studies, we propose a new model for the potential secondary structure of internal loop B of the hairpin ribozyme.
authors.affiliation: Medical Research Council, Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Beigelman
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Karpeisky
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Usman
authors.forename: U S
authors.initials: US
authors.lastname: Sorensen
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Gait
mesh_terms: D001482:Base Composition; D001483:Base Sequence; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D015394:Molecular Structure; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D016337:RNA, Catalytic / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D016337:RNA, Catalytic