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Structure of a purine-purine wobble base pair in the decoding center of the ribosome

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology volume 11, pages 1251–1252 (2004)Cite this article

Abstract

Here we report the crystal structures of I·C and I·A wobble base pairs in the context of the ribosomal decoding center, clearly showing that the I·A base pair is of an Ianti·Aanti conformation, as predicted by Crick. Additionally, the structures enable the observation of changes in the anticodon to allow purine-purine base pairing, the 'widest' base pair geometry allowed in the wobble position.

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Figure 1: Cartoon structures of the I·C and I·A base pairs.
Figure 2: Details of base pairs.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank M. Tarry for purified 30S ribosomal subunits. This work was funded by the Medical Research Council (UK), and grants from the NIH GM67624 (V.R.), and the Agouron Institute (V.R.). F.V.M. was supported by an EMBO Long-Term Fellowship.

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  1. Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 2QH, UK

    Frank V Murphy IV & V Ramakrishnan

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  1. Frank V Murphy IV
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  2. V Ramakrishnan
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Correspondence to Frank V Murphy IV or V Ramakrishnan.

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Murphy, F., Ramakrishnan, V. Structure of a purine-purine wobble base pair in the decoding center of the ribosome. Nat Struct Mol Biol 11, 1251–1252 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb866

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