Localization of the structural change induced in tRNA fMET (Escherichia coli) by acidic pH

We have compared the molecular mechanism of thermal unfolding for native tRNA fMet (Escherichia coli) and the denatured species produced by annealing at pH 4.3. Relaxation kinetic measurements reveal that the transitions assigned to melting of TphiC, anticodon, and acceptor stem helices at neutral pH remain essentially unaltered at pH 4.3, but the transition corresponding to coupled melting of tertiary structure and dihydrouridine helix is greatly affected. The Tm of this region is more than 20 degrees higher at pH 4.3 and it has a larger enthalpy formation than in the native state. The transition dynamics are also considerably changed. In contrast to the native structure, tRNA fMet1 and tRNA fMet3 have similar tertiary structure stabilities at pH 4.3. We conclude that the structural difference between native and acid-denatured forms is localized in the tertiary structure-dihydrouridine helix cooperative interaction region of the molecule.