Investigation of Ribosomal 5S Ribonucleic Acid Solution Structure and Dynamics by Means of High-Resolution Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy

Abstract

5S rRNA, a single-chain ribonucleic acid of about 120 primary bases, is found universally in the large subunit of all but fungal and animal mitochondrial ribosomes (Erdmann and Wolters, 1986). 5S rRNA is essential for ribosomal structure, since ribosomes from which it has been removed cannot be structurally reconstituted without it (e.g., Nomura and Erdmann, 1970). 5S rRNA also appears to be essential for ribosomal function because ribosomes reconstituted with structurally intact but chemically modified 5S rRNA synthesize proteins at reduced rate (Pieler et al., 1984). As might be anticipated from the essential and universal function of 5S rRNA, its more than 350 known primary base sequences (Erdmann and Wolters, 1986) are highly conserved. Moreover, it is strongly suspected that the secondary and tertiary structure of 5S rRNA is also highly conserved, since 5S rRNA isolated from several prokaryotes (but not eukaryotes) can be reconstituted with the remaining ribosomal components from another bacterium (B. stearothermophilus) to give a ribosome which is functional for protein synthesis (Pieler et al., 1984). Finally, although the location of 5S rRNA in the large ribosomal subunit is well established (Brimacombe and Stiege, 1985), its specific function remains unknown.