SummaryRNase E is an essential bacterial endoribonuclease involved in the turnover of messenger RNA and the maturation of structured RNA precursors in Escherichia coli. Here, we present the crystal structure of the E. coli RNase E catalytic domain in the apo-state at 3.3 Å. This structure indicates that, upon catalytic activation, RNase E undergoes a marked conformational change characterized by the coupled movement of two RNA-binding domains to organize the active site. The structural data suggest a mechanism of RNA recognition and cleavage that explains the enzyme's preference for substrates possessing a 5′-monophosphate and accounts for the protective effect of a triphosphate cap for most transcripts. Internal flexibility within the quaternary structure is also observed, a finding that has implications for recognition of structured RNA substrates and for the mechanism of internal entry for a subset of substrates that are cleaved without 5′-end requirements.

Rho termination factor is an essential hexameric helicase responsible for terminating 20–50% of all mRNA synthesis in E. coli. We used single- molecule force spectroscopy to investigate Rho-RNA binding interactions at the Rho- utilization (rut) site of the ? tR1 terminator. Our results are consistent with Rho complexes adopting two states, one that binds 57 ±2 nucleotides of RNA across all six of the Rho primary binding sites, and another that binds 85 ±2 nucleotides at the six primary sites plus a single secondary site situated at the center of the hexamer. The single-molecule data serve to establish that Rho translocates 5′-to-3′ towards RNA polymerase (RNAP) by a tethered-tracking mechanism, looping out the intervening RNA between the rut site and RNAP. These findings lead to a general model for Rho binding and translocation, and establish a novel experimental approach that should facilitate additional single- molecule studies of RNA-binding proteins.

Bacterial RNases catalyze the turnover of RNA and are essential for gene expression and quality surveillance of transcripts. In Escherichia coli, the exoribonucleases RNase R and polynucleotide phosphorylase (PNPase) play critical roles in degrading RNA. Here, we developed an optical-trapping assay to monitor the translocation of individual enzymes along RNA-based substrates. Single-molecule records of motion reveal RNase R to be highly processive: one molecule can unwind over 500 bp of a structured substrate. However, enzyme progress is interrupted by pausing and stalling events that can slow degradation in a sequence-dependent fashion. We found that the distance traveled by PNPase through structured RNA is dependent on the A+U content of the substrate and that removal of its KH and S1 RNA-binding domains can reduce enzyme processivity without affecting the velocity. By a periodogram analysis of single-molecule records, we establish that PNPase takes discrete steps of six or seven nucleotides. These findings, in combination with previous structural and biochemical data, support an asymmetric inchworm mechanism for PNPase motion. The assay developed here for RNase R and PNPase is well suited to studies of other exonucleases and helicases.single-molecule biophysics | optical trap | exoribonuclease | processivity | step size B oth polynucleotide phosphorylase (PNPase) and RNase R are responsible for degrading a variety of transcripts in bacteria, such as mRNAs, defective rRNAs, and antisense regulatory RNAs (1-4). Although strains of Escherichia coli remain viable with a loss of either enzyme, the elimination of both results in an accumulation of rRNA fragments and cell death (3). To degrade RNA, both ribonucleases require an unstructured binding site of at least 7-10 nt at the 3′ end of the substrate (5-7), a sequence that often is supplied by posttranscriptional polyadenylation (8-10). After binding RNA, PNPase and RNase R processively digest the substrate in the 3′-to-5′ direction (11-13).PNPase consists of a trimer that degrades RNA at catalytic sites within a central channel (9,14). The enzyme is homologous to eukaryotic and archaeal exosomes and, like these hexameric proteins, possesses a core of six RNase PH domains arranged in a ringlike configuration (two per protomer) (6, 15). Each protomer also carries a KH and an S1 RNA-binding domain at its C terminus, both of which are connected to the body of the enzyme by flexible linkers (6, 16). These domains are thought to bind RNA upstream of the catalytic sites, and recent structural evidence suggests that they may guide the substrate into the central channel through a "hands gripping a rope" mechanism (16,17). By itself, PNPase may stall on structured RNA, particularly on G:C hairpins comprising more than six base pairs (18). PNPase often associates with the DEAD-box helicase RhlB to move through structured regions and generally does so in the context of the multienzyme degradosome (2, 19). However, there is some evidence that PNPase can digest structured tra...

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