X-ray diffraction studies at 4.5A resolution on crystals of a complex of ethidium bromide and yeast phenylalanine tRNA reveal a nonintercalative mode of binding of the ethidium within the tertiary structure. This is contrary to the expected intercalative binding to the double-helical regions.The nature of the interaction of polycyclic drugs, dyes, and mutagens with nucleic acids has been a problem of longstanding interest in the study of the mechanism of drug inhibition of protein and nucleic acid synthesis. Lerman hypothesized that planar drug molecules intercalated between adjacent base pairs of double-helical nucleic acids (1). Solution studies on DNA and RNA have been interpreted to support this hypothesis (2). It has long been assumed that the inhibition of nucleic acid synthesis by the drug ethidium bromide (EtdBr) (Fig. 1) is due to an intercalative mode of binding (1-8). High-resolution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) studies have shown that ethidium binds to a single site in yeast phenylalanine tRNA (tRNAPhe) as well as unfractionated tRNAs, and this site has been interpreted as involving intercalation between the amino acid stem base pairs U6-A67 (AU6) and U7-A66 (AU7) (9). Fluorescence (8, 10) and other binding studies (5-7) also implicated an intercalative mode of binding in this region. We have determined the location of the binding site by x-ray diffraction studies of the crystalline molecular complex of EtdBr with yeast tRNAPhe using difference Fourier electron density maps and find a new, unexpected mode of interaction of ethidium within the tRNA tertiary structure that does not involve intercalation (11,12). The ethidium is found to bind specifically and is lodged in a cavity at the mouth of the "P10 loop" of the tRNA tertiary structure. The dye is stacked over U8, which is involved in the invariant tertiary base pair U8-A14, and is hydrogen bonded to the phosphates P8 and P15 across this loop. In light of our observations, we have reinterpreted the NMR spectra (9, 13-16) and have concluded that the interactions of ethidium with tRNA in solution are similar to those in the crystal. The nonintercalative mode of binding within the tertiary structure of tRNA has not been previously conceived and may be important in the function of drug and dye molecules. EXPERIMENTAL Monoclinic crystals of yeast tRNAPhe were grown in 10 mM MgCI2/10 mM cacodylate/1 mM spermine at pH 6.0, using 2-methyl-2,4-pentanediol as the precipitating agent (17). tRNAPhe crystals were soaked in solutions containing a 10-to 20-fold molar excess of EtdBr. The crystals acquired a deep stain in 2-3 days and failure in attempts to wash out the EtdBr indicated the formation of a stable complex. Two independent experiments were performed using crystals before washing (EtdBrl) and after washing (EtdBr2), and they yielded identical results as described below.The unit cell dimensions of the EtdBr-tRNA complex crystals