tRNA prefers to kiss

Six RNA aptamers that bind to yeast phenylalanine tRNA were identified by in vitro selection from a random‐sequence pool. The two most abundantly represented aptamers interact with the tRNA anticodon loop, each through a sequence block with perfect Watson–Crick complementarity to the loop. It was possible to truncate one of these aptamers to a simple hairpin loop that forms a classical ‘kissing complex’ with the anticodon loop. Three other aptamers have nearly complete complementarity to the anticodon loop. The sixth aptamer has two sequence blocks, one complementary to the tRNA T loop and the other to the D loop; this aptamer binds better to a mutant tRNA that disrupts the normal D‐loop/T‐loop tertiary interaction than to the wild‐type tRNA. Selection of complements to tRNA loops occurred despite an attempt to direct binding to tertiary structural features of tRNA. This serves as a reminder of how special the RNA–RNA interactions are that are not based on complementarity. Nonetheless, these aptamers must present the tRNA complement in some special structural context; the simple single‐strand complement of the anticodon loop did not bind tRNA effectively.

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