Poster abstracts
Poster number 45 submitted by Keshav Gc
Moonlighting of RsmC as RNA chaperone and annealer protein
Keshav GC (Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Kent State University), Prabesh Gyawali (Department of Physics, Kent State University), Hamza Balci (Department of Physics, Kent State University), Sanjaya Abeysirigunawardena (Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Kent State University)
Abstract:
Ribosome is the ribonucleoprotein machine that carries out protein biosynthesis in all kingdoms of life. Excellent coordination of rRNA tanscription, folding, modification, processing and assembly of r-proteins during ribosome biogenesis is essential to form functional ribosome. Involvement of assembly factors is critical to synchronize various processes that co-occur with ribosome assembly. Here we report moonlighting of RsmC (ribosomal RNA small subunit methyltransferase C) as an RNA chaperone and RNA strand annealer during ribosome synthesis in cells. RsmC methylates an exocyclic amine of guanine (G) located at 1207 of helix 34 (h34) of 16S rRNA (E. coli standard nucleotide numbering) from SAM to m2G. A 25-fold increase in rate of annealing of h34 was observed. Furthermore, RsmC denatures the predicted hairpin structure of its substrate strand. Chaperone activity of RmsC may be critical for the formation of 30S head domain.
Keywords: Ribosome biogenesis, RNA methyltransfease, chaperone and annealing protein