title: An eight-stranded helical fragment in RNA crystal structure: implications for tetraplex interaction.
abstract: Multistranded helical structures in nucleic acids play various functions in biological processes. Here we report the crystal structure of a hexamer, rU(BrdG)r(AGGU),at 1.5 A resolution containing a structural complex of an alternating antiparallel eight-stranded helical fragment that is sandwiched in two tetraplexes. The octaplex is formed by groove binding interaction and base tetrad intercalation between two tetraplexes. Two different forms of octaplexes have been proposed, which display different properties in interaction with proteins and nucleic acids. Adenines form a base tetrad in the novel N6-H em leader N3 conformation and further interact with uridines to form an adenine-uridine octad in the reverse Hoogsteen pairing scheme. The conformational flexibility of adenine tetrad indicates that it can optimize its conformation in different interactions.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry, The Ohio State University, 200 Johnston Lab, 176 West 19th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USA.
authors.forename: Baocheng
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xiong
authors.forename: Ke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Muttaiya
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sundaralingam
mesh_terms: D003461:Crystallography; D008670:Metals / Q000378:metabolism; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D012313:RNA / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D008670:Metals; D012313:RNA