A nuclear magnetic resonance study of secondary and tertiary structure in yeast tRNAPhe

Abstract

Experimental evidence is presented which confirms recently proposed ring current prediction methods for assigning hydrogen-bond proton NMR spectra from tRNA. The evidence is a series of temperature-dependent studies on yeast tRNAPhe monitoring both the high- and low-field NMR spectral regions, which are correlated with independent optical and temperature-jump (temp-jump) studies performed under identical ionic strength conditions. Using assignments derived from the new prediction methods, the melting patterns of the hydrogen-bonded resonances agree with those expected on the basis of optical, temp-jump and NMR studies on the high-field spectral region. Previous assignment procedures are at least partially incorrect and, therefore, studies based on those procedures must be reexamined.