PMID: 19228585

Authors:

Olieric V, Rieder U, Lang K, Serganov A, Schulze-Briese C, Micura R, Dumas P, Ennifar E

Title:

A fast selenium derivatization strategy for crystallization and phasing of RNA structures.

Journal:

RNA. 2009 Apr;15(4):707-15. Epub 2009 Feb 18.

Abstract:

Site-specific 2'-methylseleno RNA labeling is a promising tool for tackling the phase problem in RNA crystallography. We have developed an efficient strategy for crystallization and structure determination of RNA and RNA/protein complexes based on preliminary crystallization screening of 2'-OCH(3)-modified RNA sequences, prior to the replacement of 2'-OCH(3) groups with their 2'-SeCH(3) counterparts. The method exploits the similar crystallization properties of 2'-OCH(3)- and 2'-SeCH(3)-modified RNAs and has been successfully validated for two test cases. In addition, our data show that 2'-SeCH(3)-modified RNA have an increased resistance to X-ray radiolysis in comparison with commonly used 5-halogen-modified RNA, which permits collection of experimental electron density maps of remarkable quality.