Origins of RNA catalysis in the hairpin ribozyme

Efficient ligation of the Schistosoma hammerhead ribozyme

The hammerhead ribozyme from Schistosoma mansoni is the best characterized of the natural hammerhead ribozymes. Biophysical, biochemical, and structural studies have shown that the formation of the loop-loop tertiary interaction between stems I and II alters the global folding, cleavage kinetics, and conformation of the catalytic core of this hammerhead, leading to a ribozyme that is readily cleaved under physiological conditions. This study investigates the ligation kinetics and the internal equilibrium between cleavage and ligation for the Schistosoma hammerhead. Single turnover kinetic studies on a construct where the ribozyme cleaves and ligates substrate(s) in trans showed up to 23% ligation when starting from fully cleaved products. This was achieved by an approximately 2000-fold increase in the rate of ligation compared to a minimal hammerhead without the loop-loop tertiary interaction, yielding an internal equilibrium that ranges from 2 to 3 at physiological Mg2+ ion concentrations (0.1-1 mM). Thus, the natural Schistosoma hammerhead ribozyme is almost as efficient at ligation as it is at cleavage. The results here are consistent with a model where formation of the loop-loop tertiary interaction leads to a higher population of catalytically active molecules and where formation of this tertiary interaction has a much larger effect on the ligation than the cleavage activity of the Schistosoma hammerhead ribozyme.

Active Site Labeling of G8 in the Hairpin Ribozyme: Implications for Structure and Mechanism

There is mounting evidence that suggests that general acid/base catalysis is operative in the hairpin ribozyme, with analogy to the protein enzyme RNaseA. Nevertheless, the extent of general base catalysis as well as the identity of the specific chemical groups responsible remains the subject of some controversy. An affinity label has previously been used to alkylate histidine 12 (His12), the active general base in RNaseA. To date, no such experiment has been applied to a ribozyme. We have synthesized the analogous affinity label for the hairpin ribozyme with an electrophilic 2'-bromoacetamide group in lieu of the 2'-hydroxyl (2'OH) at the substrate cleavage site and show that guanosine 8 (G8) of the hairpin ribozyme is specifically alkylated, most likely at the N1 position. This evidence strongly implicates N1 of G8 in active site chemistry. By direct analogy to RNase A, these findings could be consistent with the hypothesis that deprotonated G8 residue functions as a general base in the hairpin ribozyme. Other mechanistic possibilities for N1 of G8 such as indirect general base catalysis mediated by a water molecule or transition state stabilization could also be consistent with our findings.

The chemical nature of the 2'-substituent in the pentose-sugar dictates the pseudoaromatic character of the nucleobase (pKa) in DNA/RNA

We here show that the pKa (error limit: 0.01 to 0.03 pKa unit) of a nucleobase in a nucleotide can be modulated by the chemical nature of the 2'-substituent at the sugar moiety. This has been evidenced by the measurement of nucleobase pKa in 47 different model nucleoside 3',5'-bis- and 3'-mono-ethylphosphates. The fact that the electronic character of each of the 2'-substituents (Fig. 1) alters the chemical shift of the H2' sugar proton, and also alters the pKa of the nucleobase in the nucleotides has been evidenced by a correlation plot of pKa of N3 of pyrimidine (T/C/U) or pKa of N7 of 9-guaninyl with the corresponding deltaH2' chemical shifts at the neutral pH, which shows linear correlation with high Pearson's correlation coefficients (R = 0.85-0.97). That this modulation of the pKa of the nucleobase by a 2'-substituent is a through-bond as well as through-space effect has been proven by ab initio determined pKa estimation. Interestingly, experimental pKas of nucleobases from NMR titration and the calculated pKas (by ab initio calculations utilizing closed shell HF 6-31G** basis set) are linearly correlated with R = 0.98. It has also been observed that the difference of ground and protonated/de-protonated HOMO orbital energies (DeltaHOMO, a.u.) for the nucleobases (A/G/C/T/U) are well correlated with their pK(a)s in different 2'-substituted 3',5'-bis-ethylphosphate analogs suggesting that only the orbital energy of HOMO can be successfully used to predict the modulation of the chemical reactivity of the nucleobase by the 2'-substituent. It has also been demonstrated that pKa values of nucleobases in 3',5'-bis-ethylphosphates (Table 1) are well correlated with the change in dipole moment for the respective nucleobases after protonation or de-protonation. This work thus unambiguously shows that alteration of the thermodynamic stability (Tm) of the donor-acceptor complexes [ref. 20], as found with various 2'-modified duplexes in the antisense, siRNA or in triplexes by many workers in the field, is a result of alteration of the pseudoaromatic character of the nucleobases engineered by alteration of the chemical nature of the 2'-substitution.

Folding and catalysis of the hairpin ribozyme

The active form of the hairpin ribozyme is brought about by the interaction of two formally unpaired loops. In a natural molecule, these are present on two adjacent arms of a four-way junction. Although activity can be obtained in molecules lacking this junction, the junction is important in the promotion of the folded state of the ribozyme under physiological conditions, at a rate that is faster than the chemical reaction. Single-molecule fluorescence resonance energy transfer studies show that the junction introduces a discrete intermediate into the folding process, which repeatedly juxtaposes the two loops and thus promotes their docking. Using single-molecule enzymology, the cleavage and ligation rates have been measured directly. The pH dependence of the rates is consistent with a role for nucleobases acting in general acid-base catalysis.

Folding of the natural hammerhead ribozyme is enhanced by interaction of auxiliary elements

It has been shown that the activity of the hammerhead ribozyme at microM magnesium ion concentrations is markedly increased by the inclusion of loops in helices I and II. We have studied the effect of such loops on the magnesium ion-induced folding of the ribozyme, using fluorescence resonance energy transfer. We find that with the loops in place, folding into the active conformation occurs in a single step, in the microM range of magnesium ion concentration. Disruption of the loop-loop interaction leads to a reversion to two-step folding, with the second stage requiring mM concentrations of magnesium ion. Sodium ions also promote the folding of the natural form of the ribozyme at high concentrations, but the folding occurs as a two-stage process. The loops clearly act as important auxiliary elements in the function of the ribozyme, permitting folding to occur efficiently under physiological conditions.

The hairpin ribozyme

The hairpin ribozyme is a naturally occurring RNA that catalyzes sequence-specific cleavage and ligation of RNA. It has been the subject of extensive biochemical and structural studies, perhaps the most detailed for any catalytic RNA to date. Comparison of the structures of its constituent domains free and fully assembled demonstrates that the RNA undergoes extensive structural rearrangement. This rearrangement results in a distortion of the substrate RNA that primes it for cleavage. This ribozyme is known to achieve catalysis employing exclusively RNA functional groups. Metal ions or other catalytic cofactors are not used. Current experimental evidence points to a combination of at least four mechanistic strategies by this RNA: (1) precise substrate orientation, (2) preferential transition state binding, (3) electrostatic catalysis, and (4) general acid base catalysis.

Cross-modulation of the pKa of nucleobases in a single-stranded hexameric-RNA due to tandem electrostatic nearest-neighbor interactions

The pH titration studies (pH 6.7-12.1) in a series of dimeric, trimeric, tetrameric, pentameric, and hexameric oligo-RNA molecules [GpA (2a), GpC (3a), GpApC (5), GpA(1)pA(2)pC (6), GpA(1)pA(2)pA(3)pC (7), GpA(1)pA(2)pA(3)pA(4)pC (8)] have shown that the pK(a) of N(1)-H of 9-guaninyl could be measured not only from its own deltaH8G, but also from the aromatic marker protons of other constituent nucleobases. The relative chemical shift differences [Deltadelta((N)(-)(D))] between the protons in various nucleotide residues in the oligo-RNAs at the neutral (N) and deprotonated (D) states of the guanine moiety show that the generation of the 5'-(9-guanylate ion) in oligo-RNAs 2-8 reduces the stability of the stacked helical RNA conformation owing to the destabilizing anion(G(-))-pi/dipole(Im(delta)(-)) interaction. This destabilizing effect in the deprotonated RNA is, however, opposed by the electrostatically attractive atom-pisigma (major) as well as the anion(G(-))-pi/dipole(Py(delta)(+)) (minor) interactions. Our studies have demonstrated that the electrostatically repulsive anion(G(-))-pi/dipole(Im(delta)(-)) interaction propagates from the first to the third nucleobase quite strongly in the oligo-RNAs 6-8, causing destacking of the helix, and then its effect is gradually reduced, although it is clearly NMR detectable along the RNA chain. Thus, such specific generation of a charge at a single nucleobase moiety allows us to explore the relative strength of stacking within a single-stranded helix. The pK(a) of 5'-Gp residue from its own deltaH8G in the hexameric RNA 8 is found to be 9.76 +/- 0.01; it, however, varies from 9.65 +/- 0.01 to 10.5 +/- 0.07 along the RNA chain as measured from the other marker protons (H2, H8, H5, and H6) of 9-adeninyl and 1-cytosinyl residues. This nucleobase-dependent modulation of pK(a)s (DeltapK(a) +/- 0.9) of 9-guaninyl obtained from other nucleobases in the hexameric RNA 8 represents a difference of ca. 5.1 kJ mol(-)(1), which has been attributed to the variable strength of electrostatic interactions between the electron densities of the involved atoms in the offset stacked nucleobases as well as with that of the phosphates. The chemical implication of this variable pK(a) for guanin-9-yl deprotonation as obtained from all other marker protons of each nucleotide residue within a ssRNA molecule is that it enables us to experimentally understand the variation of the electronic microenvironment around each constituent nucleobase along the RNA chain in a stepwise manner with very high accuracy without having to make any assumption. This means that the pseudoaromaticity of neighboring 9-adeninyl and next-neighbor nucleobases within a polyanionic sugar-phosphate backbone of a ssRNA can vary from one case to another due to cross-modulation of an electronically coupled pi system by a neighboring nucleobase. This modulation may depend on the sequence context, spatial proximity of the negatively charged phosphates, as well as whether the offset stacking is ON or OFF. The net outcome of this electrostatic interaction between the neighbors is creation of new sequence-dependent hybrid nucleobases in an oligo- or polynucleotide whose properties are unlike the monomeric counterpart, which may have considerable biological implications.