In vitro selection of RNA against kanamycin B

Aminoglycosides are well-known antibiotics that function by interacting with ribosomal RNA in bacteria. In order to understand the molecular details between RNA and the drug, RNA aptamer was selected against kanamycin B. After 12 cycles of selection, RNA was cloned and sequenced. Among 9 clones, sequences of three clones were identical, suggesting the selected RNA was enriched. Among the cloned RNA molecules, the triplicated RNA was the maximum binding RNA. It showed a 180 nM affinity (KD) to the cognate aminoglycoside, as measured by a surface plasmon resonance, and a competition assay using a fluorescence anisotropy technique. The affinity of the maximum binding RNA to a similar aminoglycoside, tobramycin, was much stronger than 12 nM of KD. The binding site of the aminoglycoside in the maximum binding RNA was a stem loop located at the end of the 5' region. A stem loop structural motif, found in this study, was similar to those previously reported, even though the sequences of the RNA were totally different from the known sequences of the aminoglycoside binding site of other aptamers. The present study suggests that the aminoglycoside-binding region in RNA does not have a sequence specificity, but has a shape-specific bulged stem loop, even though it has a nanomolar affinity.