Structural review demonstrates prevalent non-Watson-Crick tertiary base pairing in transfer RNA, suggesting crucial architectural and information transfer roles across diverse ribonucleic acids.
The non-Watson-Crick base-pairing interactions in tRNAs are reviewed in relation to the base types (complementary/noncomplementary), glycosyl configuration (cis/trans), and backbone chain direction (antiparallel/parallel). It is found that all but one of the tertiary base pairs, including one within a helix, exhibit non-Watson-Crick pairing schemes regardless of whether or not complementary bases are involved, thus emphasizing that complementary bases are not necessarily engaged in Watson-Crick pairs only. It is suggested that similar non-Watson-Crick pairs may form a significant proportion of the tertiary interactions in other ribonucleic acids (such as ribosomal and viral RNAs) and perhaps also turn out to be important in nucleic acid-nucleic acid and nucleic acid-oligonucleotide interactions. The biological significance of such interactions in “information transfer” should not be underestimated.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
M. Sundaralingam (2009) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: