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. 1981 Jan 24;9(2):267–275. doi: 10.1093/nar/9.2.267

Adenosine dimethylation of 16S ribosomal RNA: effect of the methylgroups on local conformational stability as deduced from electrophoretic mobility of RNA fragments in denaturing polyacrylamide gels.

R Van Charldorp, H A Heus, P H Van Knippenberg
PMCID: PMC326691  PMID: 7010312

Abstract

The electrophoretic mobility of RNA fragments derived from the 3'-end of 16S rRNA on slabs of polyacrylamide gel in the presence of urea is strongly influenced by dimethylation of the N6-aminogroup of two adjacent adenosines. This is not due to the presence of the methylgroups per se, but must be ascribed to an effect of methylation on long range intramolecular interactions at these denaturing conditions. When it is assumed that the electrophoretic mobilities of the RNA fragments in the polyacrylamide matrix are determined by the conformational state(s) of the fragments, dimethylation of the adenosines leads in the smaller fragments to a less compact average conformation and in the larger fragments to a more compact average conformation. An effort is made to comprehend the effects of adenosine dimethylation in terms of secondary structure based on nucleotide sequence.

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Selected References

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

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