Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Journal of Bacteriology logoLink to Journal of Bacteriology
. 1989 Aug;171(8):4261–4266. doi: 10.1128/jb.171.8.4261-4266.1989

Isolation and characterization of the 7S RNA gene from Methanococcus voltae.

B P Kaine 1, V L Merkel 1
PMCID: PMC210199  PMID: 2473978

Abstract

The gene encoding the 7S RNA of the archaebacterium Methanococcus voltae has been isolated. The gene occurs as a single copy within the genome and encodes an RNA molecule approximately 300 nucleotides in length. The M. voltae RNA molecule exhibits a strong similarity to both archaebacterial and eucaryotic 7S RNAs in terms of overall secondary structure, while the primary sequence is conserved to a lesser degree. All 7S RNA molecules possess a specific structural domain which is highly conserved in terms of both primary sequence and secondary structure, possibly representing a functional site of the molecule. Conservation of the 7S RNA molecule suggests that it is the descendant of a subcellular structure present before the divergence of the archaebacterial and eucaryotic kingdoms. The M. voltae 7S RNA gene is flanked both 5' and 3' by regions of extremely A + T-rich DNA. The 5'-flanking region contains several potential promoter sequences for archaebacterial RNA polymerases. One such sequence occurs as three direct repeats and bears a strong similarity to sequences found upstream of other archaebacterial genes. The 3'-flanking region contains a strong signal for the termination of transcription.

Full text

PDF
4261

Images in this article

4264Image
on p.4264
4264Image
on p.4264

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Balch W. E., Fox G. E., Magrum L. J., Woese C. R., Wolfe R. S. Methanogens: reevaluation of a unique biological group. Microbiol Rev. 1979 Jun;43(2):260–296. doi: 10.1128/mr.43.2.260-296.1979. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Berghöfer B., Kröckel L., Körtner C., Truss M., Schallenberg J., Klein A. Relatedness of archaebacterial RNA polymerase core subunits to their eubacterial and eukaryotic equivalents. Nucleic Acids Res. 1988 Aug 25;16(16):8113–8128. doi: 10.1093/nar/16.16.8113. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Biggin M. D., Gibson T. J., Hong G. F. Buffer gradient gels and 35S label as an aid to rapid DNA sequence determination. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1983 Jul;80(13):3963–3965. doi: 10.1073/pnas.80.13.3963. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Bollschweiler C., Kühn R., Klein A. Non-repetitive AT-rich sequences are found in intergenic regions of Methanococcus voltae DNA. EMBO J. 1985 Mar;4(3):805–809. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1985.tb03701.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Boyer H. W., Roulland-Dussoix D. A complementation analysis of the restriction and modification of DNA in Escherichia coli. J Mol Biol. 1969 May 14;41(3):459–472. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(69)90288-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Brennwald P., Liao X., Holm K., Porter G., Wise J. A. Identification of an essential Schizosaccharomyces pombe RNA homologous to the 7SL component of signal recognition particle. Mol Cell Biol. 1988 Apr;8(4):1580–1590. doi: 10.1128/mcb.8.4.1580. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Daniels C. J., Gupta R., Doolittle W. F. Transcription and excision of a large intron in the tRNATrp gene of an archaebacterium, Halobacterium volcanii. J Biol Chem. 1985 Mar 10;260(5):3132–3134. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Dassarma S., Rajbhandary U. L., Khorana H. G. Bacterio-opsin mRNA in wild-type and bacterio-opsin-deficient Halobacterium halobium strains. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1984 Jan;81(1):125–129. doi: 10.1073/pnas.81.1.125. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Dennis P. P. Molecular biology of archaebacteria. J Bacteriol. 1986 Nov;168(2):471–478. doi: 10.1128/jb.168.2.471-478.1986. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Grunstein M., Hogness D. S. Colony hybridization: a method for the isolation of cloned DNAs that contain a specific gene. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1975 Oct;72(10):3961–3965. doi: 10.1073/pnas.72.10.3961. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Kaine B. P., Gupta R., Woese C. R. Putative introns in tRNA genes of prokaryotes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1983 Jun;80(11):3309–3312. doi: 10.1073/pnas.80.11.3309. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Klein A., Schnorr M. Genome complexity of methanogenic bacteria. J Bacteriol. 1984 May;158(2):628–631. doi: 10.1128/jb.158.2.628-631.1984. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Lake J. A., Henderson E., Clark M. W., Matheson A. T. Mapping evolution with ribosome structure: intralineage constancy and interlineage variation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1982 Oct;79(19):5948–5952. doi: 10.1073/pnas.79.19.5948. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Lewin R. Surprising discovery with a small RNA. Science. 1982 Nov 19;218(4574):777–778. doi: 10.1126/science.6182614. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Luehrsen K. R., Nicholson D. E., Jr, Fox G. E. Widespread distribution of a 7S RNA in archaebacteria. Curr Microbiol. 1985;12:69–72. doi: 10.1007/BF01567394. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Matheson A. T., Yaguchi M., Balch W. E., Wolfe R. S. Sequence homologies in the N-terminal region of the ribosomal 'A' proteins from Methanobacterium Thermoautotrophicum and Halobacterium cutirubrum. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1980 Nov 20;626(1):162–169. doi: 10.1016/0005-2795(80)90207-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Moritz A., Goebel W. Characterization of the 7S RNA and its gene from halobacteria. Nucleic Acids Res. 1985 Oct 11;13(19):6969–6979. doi: 10.1093/nar/13.19.6969. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Moritz A., Lankat-Buttgereit B., Gross H. J., Goebel W. Common structural features of the genes for two stable RNAs from Halobacterium halobium. Nucleic Acids Res. 1985 Jan 11;13(1):31–43. doi: 10.1093/nar/13.1.31. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Poritz M. A., Siegel V., Hansen W., Walter P. Small ribonucleoproteins in Schizosaccharomyces pombe and Yarrowia lipolytica homologous to signal recognition particle. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1988 Jun;85(12):4315–4319. doi: 10.1073/pnas.85.12.4315. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Poritz M. A., Strub K., Walter P. Human SRP RNA and E. coli 4.5S RNA contain a highly homologous structural domain. Cell. 1988 Oct 7;55(1):4–6. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(88)90003-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Sanger F., Nicklen S., Coulson A. R. DNA sequencing with chain-terminating inhibitors. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1977 Dec;74(12):5463–5467. doi: 10.1073/pnas.74.12.5463. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Siegel V., Walter P. Binding sites of the 19-kDa and 68/72-kDa signal recognition particle (SRP) proteins on SRP RNA as determined in protein-RNA "footprinting". Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1988 Mar;85(6):1801–1805. doi: 10.1073/pnas.85.6.1801. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Southern E. M. Detection of specific sequences among DNA fragments separated by gel electrophoresis. J Mol Biol. 1975 Nov 5;98(3):503–517. doi: 10.1016/s0022-2836(75)80083-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Ullu E., Murphy S., Melli M. Human 7SL RNA consists of a 140 nucleotide middle-repetitive sequence inserted in an alu sequence. Cell. 1982 May;29(1):195–202. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(82)90103-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Walter P., Blobel G. Signal recognition particle contains a 7S RNA essential for protein translocation across the endoplasmic reticulum. Nature. 1982 Oct 21;299(5885):691–698. doi: 10.1038/299691a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Wich G., Hummel H., Jarsch M., Bär U., Böck A. Transcription signals for stable RNA genes in Methanococcus. Nucleic Acids Res. 1986 Mar 25;14(6):2459–2479. doi: 10.1093/nar/14.6.2459. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  27. Woese C. R., Fox G. E. Phylogenetic structure of the prokaryotic domain: the primary kingdoms. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1977 Nov;74(11):5088–5090. doi: 10.1073/pnas.74.11.5088. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  28. Zwieb C. The secondary structure of the 7SL RNA in the signal recognition particle: functional implications. Nucleic Acids Res. 1985 Sep 11;13(17):6105–6124. doi: 10.1093/nar/13.17.6105. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Journal of Bacteriology are provided here courtesy of American Society for Microbiology (ASM)

RESOURCES