A model for the interaction of nucleic acids with transcription factor IIIA

Nuclease properties of two putative zinc finger peptides

We studied the interaction of wheat germ 5S rRNA with synthetic polypeptides whose amino acid sequences were similar to that of the second zinc finger of Xenopus laevis transcriptional factor IIIA (TFIIIA). The results clearly show that in addition to weak 5S rRNA binding activity (data not shown), these two 30 amino acid long polypeptides hydrolyse some phosphodiester bonds of wheat germ 5S rRNA. The cleavage pattern of plant 5S rRNA is very specific and the cuts occur only after the pyrimidine residues. The same properties of these peptides were furthermore observed for E. coli tRNA(Phe). We found that the digestion specificity of both the zinc finger peptides is very similar to that of a pancreatic ribonuclease (RNase A).

Compilation of 5S rRNA and 5S rRNA gene sequences

The BERLIN RNA DATABANK as of December 31, 1989, contains a total of 667 sequences of 5S rRNAs or their genes, which is an increase of 114 new sequence entries over the last compilation (1). It covers sequences from 44 archaebacteria, 267 eubacteria, 20 plastids, 6 mitochondria, 319 eukaryotes and 11 eukaryotic pseudogenes. The hardcopy shows only the list of those organisms whose sequences have been determined. The BERLIN RNA DATABANK uses the format of the EMBL Nucleotide Sequence Data Library complemented by a Sequence Alignment (SA) field including secondary structure information.

Compilation of 5S rRNA and 5S rRNA gene sequences

The BERLIN RNA DATABANK as of December 31, 1987, contains a total of 509 sequences of 5S rRNAs or their genes, which is an increase of 45% over the last (1986) compilation (1). It covers sequences from 38 archaebacteria, 184 eubacteria, 14 plastids, 4 mitochondria, 258 eukaryotes and 11 eukaryotic pseudogenes. The BERLIN RNA DATABANK uses the format of the EMBL Nucleotide Sequence Data Library complemented by a Sequence Alignment (SA) field including secondary structure information as presented in this publication. The BERLIN RNA DATABANK is available on 360 or 1200 kb diskettes.