Abstract
This chapter reviews that high-resolution NMR has been used to provide information on the secondary and tertiary structure of tRNA molecules in solution. It focuses on low field resonances from the ring nitrogen protons involved in base pairing, as these have provided most of the information to date. NMR complements and corroborates the recent X-ray diffraction studies on one particular tRNA, yeast tRNAPhe, and permits the crystal results on this one tRNA to be generalized to an entire class of tRNA. In this way, the NMR results have served as a bridge to justify the extension of the crystallographic results to tRNAPhe and other tRNAs in solution. The chapter also discusses that NMR can be used to treat tRNA structure and function problems that are currently unapproachable by X-ray diffraction analysis. NMR has been used to work out plausible structures for the denatured conformers of two tRNAs, and for the dimer of another. The alteration of tRNA conformation as a result of several different chemical modifications removal or replacement of bases in the anticodon loop has also been analyzed. NMR experiments have provided interesting insight into the interaction of tRNA molecules with intercalating drugs and dyes, which may find application in other biochemical and physical chemical studies of tRNA protein interactions.
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