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Updated: Aug 9, 2026

Exploring Sequence Space to Identify Binding Sites for Regulatory RNA-Binding Proteins
Published on: August 9, 2019
Base-pairing interactions involving the 5' and 3'-terminal nucleotides of group II self-splicing introns
1Institut Pasteur, Département de Biologie Moléculaire, Paris, France.
Abstract:
By combining comparative sequence analyses and nucleotide replacements, we show that formation of the active center of group II introns rests in part on two novel long-range base-pairing interactions. (1) The last nucleotide of group II introns forms a solitary Watson-Crick base-pair with one of the nucleotides in the short sequence stretch connecting domains II and III. Formation of this base-pair is rate-limiting for the 3' cleavage and ligation step. (2) Nucleotides 3 and 4 form base-pairs with two consecutive nucleotides in a well-conserved internal loop of domain I. This interaction is involved in both the 5' and 3' cleavage steps. Possible relationships between group II and nuclear pre-mRNA introns are reassessed by taking into account these new pieces of information.
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