Person:

Salguero, Carolina

Most retroviruses require translational recoding of a viral messenger RNA stop codon to maintain a precise ratio of structural (Gag) and enzymatic (Pol) proteins during virus assembly. Pol is expressed exclusively as a Gag–Pol fusion either by ribosomal frameshifting or by read-through of the gag stop codon. Both of these mechanisms occur infrequently and only affect 5–10% of translating ribosomes, allowing the virus to maintain the critical Gag to Gag–Pol ratio. Although it is understood that the frequency of the recoding event is regulated by cis RNA motifs, no mechanistic explanation is currently available for how the critical protein ratio is maintained. Here we present the NMR structure of the murine leukaemia virus recoding signal and show that a protonation-dependent switch occurs to induce the active conformation. The equilibrium is such that at physiological pH the active, read-through permissive conformation is populated at approximately 6%: a level that correlates with in vivo protein quantities. The RNA functions by a highly sensitive, chemo-mechanical coupling tuned to ensure an optimal read-through frequency. Similar observations for a frameshifting signal indicate that this novel equilibrium-based mechanism may have a general role in translational recoding.

Stable isotope labeling is central to NMR studies of nucleic acids. Development of methods that incorporate labels at specific atomic positions within each nucleotide promises to expand the size range of RNAs that can be studied by NMR. Using recombinantly expressed enzymes and chemically synthesized ribose and nucleobase, we have developed an inexpensive, rapid chemo-enzymatic method to label ATP and GTP site specifically and in high yields of up to 90%. We incorporated these nucleotides into RNAs with sizes ranging from 27 to 59 nucleotides using in vitro transcription: A-Site (27 nt), the iron responsive elements (29 nt), a fluoride riboswitch from Bacillus anthracis (48 nt), and a frame-shifting element from a human corona virus (59 nt). Finally, we showcase the improvement in spectral quality arising from reduced crowding and narrowed linewidths, and accurate analysis of NMR relaxation dispersion (CPMG) and TROSY-based CEST experiments to measure μs-ms time scale motions, and an improved NOESY strategy for resonance assignment. Applications of this selective labeling technology promises to reduce difficulties associated with chemical shift overlap and rapid signal decay that have made it challenging to study the structure and dynamics of large RNAs beyond the 50 nt median size found in the PDB.