Publication Date:
2006-01-18
Description:
The specialized ribonuclease Dicer initiates RNA interference by cleaving double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) substrates into small fragments about 25 nucleotides in length. In the crystal structure of an intact Dicer enzyme, the PAZ domain, a module that binds the end of dsRNA, is separated from the two catalytic ribonuclease III (RNase III) domains by a flat, positively charged surface. The 65 angstrom distance between the PAZ and RNase III domains matches the length spanned by 25 base pairs of RNA. Thus, Dicer itself is a molecular ruler that recognizes dsRNA and cleaves a specified distance from the helical end.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Macrae, Ian J -- Zhou, Kaihong -- Li, Fei -- Repic, Adrian -- Brooks, Angela N -- Cande, W Zacheus -- Adams, Paul D -- Doudna, Jennifer A -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2006 Jan 13;311(5758):195-8.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16410517" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Amino Acid Sequence
;
Animals
;
Conserved Sequence
;
Crystallography, X-Ray
;
Giardia lamblia/enzymology
;
Humans
;
Lanthanoid Series Elements/metabolism
;
Models, Molecular
;
Molecular Sequence Data
;
Protein Structure, Tertiary
;
RNA Interference
;
RNA, Double-Stranded/*metabolism
;
RNA, Protozoan/metabolism
;
Recombinant Fusion Proteins/genetics/metabolism
;
Ribonuclease III/*chemistry/metabolism
;
Schizosaccharomyces/genetics
;
Structure-Activity Relationship
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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