Reconstituting Bacterial RNA Repair and Modification in Vitro
Chio Mui Chan,1,*
Chun Zhou,1,*
Raven H. Huang1,2,
Ribotoxins kill cells by endonucleotically cleaving essential
RNAs involved in protein translation. We report here that a
stable heterotetramer composed of two bacterial proteins, Pnkp
and Hen1, was able to repair transfer RNAs cleaved by ribotoxins
in vitro. Before the broken RNAs were ligated by the heterotetramer,
a methyl group was added to the 2'-OH group that participated
in the original RNA cut. Because of the methylation, RNAs repaired
by bacterial Pnkp/Hen1 heterotetramer could not be cleaved again
by the ribotoxins. Thus, unlike eukaryotic Hen1 involved in
RNA interference, the bacterial Hen1 is part of an RNA repair
and modification system.
2 Center for Biophysics and Computational Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
* These authors contributed equally to this work.
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: huang{at}uiuc.edu
