Crystallography Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Crystallography, including details on x-ray crystals, techniques, analyses, structures.

Cocrystallizing natural RNA with its unnatural mirror image: biochemical and preliminary X-ray diffraction analysis of a 5S rRNA A-helix racemate.

Förster C, Brauer AB, Lehmann D, Borowski T, Brode S, Fürste JP, Perbandt M, Betzel C, Erdmann VA

Institute of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Free University Berlin, Thielallee 63, 14195 Berlin, Germany.

Chemically synthesized RNAs with the unnatural L-configuration possess enhanced in vivo stability and nuclease resistance, which is a highly desirable property for pharmacological applications. For a structural comparison, both L- and D-RNA oligonucleotides of a shortened Thermus flavus 5S rRNA A-helix were chemically synthesized. The enantiomeric RNA duplexes were stochiometrically cocrystallized as a racemate, which enabled analysis of the D- and L-RNA enantiomers in the same crystals. In addition to a biochemical investigation, diffraction data were collected to 3.0 A resolution using synchrotron radiation. The crystals belonged to space group P3(1)21, with unit-cell parameters a = b = 35.59, c = 135.30 A, gamma = 120 degrees and two molecules per asymmetric unit.

Published 2 October 2007 in Acta Crystallogr Sect F Struct Biol Cryst Commun, 63: 839-43.
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