Department of Molecular Biology, University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler, Tyler, Texas, USA.
Within the large domain of the human signal recognition particle (SRP), 18 mutant SRP RNAs were constructed to disrupt Watson-Crick and G-U basepairs in helices 5, 6 and 8. Using a double-filter assay, the competitive binding of the mutant RNAs to purified human SRP68/72 or to a 7.4 kDa RNA-binding fragment of SRP72 (72frg) was measured. Binding of SRP68/72 was impaired by several mutations in the large domain with the most pronounced effects caused by changes in helix 5 (residues 222-231) and helix 8 (residues 176-191 and 202-214). Binding of the 72frg was diminished prominently by altering helix 5, in particular residues 120-128, and was unaffected by deleting helices 6 and 8. Deleting helix 8 diminished binding of SRP68/72 to a greater extent than deleting helix 6. The data suggest that nucleotide residues throughout most of the large SRP domain are directly and/or indirectly engaged in the binding of SRP68. In contrast, SRP72 binds only to a portion of the 5ef region.