Structural and functional studies on novel tRNA splicing endonucleases

A. Hirata, T. Kitajima, and H. Hori,
“Cleavage of intron from the standard or non-standard position of the precursor tRNA by the splicing endonuclease of Aeropyrum pernix, a hyper-thermophilic Crenarchaeon, involves a novel RNA recognition site in the Crenarchaea specific loop.”
Nucleic Acids Res. 39, 9376-9389 (2011)

A. Hirata, K. Fujishima, R. Yamagami, T. Kawamura, J. F. Banfield, A. Kanai, and H. Hori,
“X-ray structure of the fourth type of archaeal tRNA splicing endonuclease: insight into the evolution of a novel three-unit composition and a unique loop involved in broad substrate specificity.”
Nucleic Acids Res. 40, 10554-10566 (2012)

The structure of tRNA splicing endonuclease (left) from ARMAN-2 (center), which is one of the minimal size living organisms.

Dr. Akira Hirata won the Best Poster Presentation Award in the 11th Exteremephiles Society Meeting of Japan.