title: Atomic level architecture of group I introns revealed.
abstract: Twenty-two years after their discovery as ribozymes, the self-splicing group I introns are finally disclosing their architecture at the atomic level. The crystal structures of three group I introns solved at moderately high resolution (3.1-3.8A) reveal a remarkably conserved catalytic core bound to the metal ions required for activity. The structure of the core is stabilized by an intron-specific set of long-range interactions that involves peripheral elements. Group I intron structures thus provide much awaited and extremely valuable snapshots of how these ribozymes coordinate substrate binding and catalysis.
authors.affiliation: Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Colorado, UCB 215, Boulder, CO 80309-0215, USA.
authors.forename: Quentin
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Vicens
authors.forename: Thomas R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Cech
mesh_terms: D001665:Binding Sites; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000648:ultrastructure; D005091:Exons; D007438:Introns; D008958:Models, Molecular; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D012313:RNA / Q000737:chemistry / Q000648:ultrastructure; D016337:RNA, Catalytic / Q000737:chemistry / Q000648:ultrastructure
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D016337:RNA, Catalytic; D012313:RNA; D004247:DNA