Synchronous RNA conformational changes trigger ordered phase transitions in crystals
Category
Published on
Type
journal-article
Author
Saminathan Ramakrishnan and Jason R. Stagno and Chelsie E. Conrad and Jienyu Ding and Ping Yu and Yuba R. Bhandari and Yun-Tzai Lee and Gary Pauly and Oleksandr Yefanov and Max O. Wiedorn and Juraj Knoska and Dominik Oberthür and Thomas A. White and Anton Barty and Valerio Mariani and Chufeng Li and Wolfgang Brehm and William F. Heinz and Valentin Magidson and Stephen Lockett and Mark S. Hunter and Sébastien Boutet and Nadia A. Zatsepin and Xiaobing Zuo and Thomas D. Grant and Suraj Pandey and Marius Schmidt and John C. H. Spence and Henry N. Chapman and Yun-Xing Wang
Citation
Ramakrishnan, S. et al., 2021. Synchronous RNA conformational changes trigger ordered phase transitions in crystals. Nature Communications, 12(1). Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21838-5.
Abstract
AbstractTime-resolved studies of biomacromolecular crystals have been limited to systems involving only minute conformational changes within the same lattice. Ligand-induced changes greater than several angstroms, however, are likely to result in solid-solid phase transitions, which require a detailed understanding of the mechanistic interplay between conformational and lattice transitions. Here we report the synchronous behavior of the adenine riboswitch aptamer RNA in crystal during ligand-triggered isothermal phase transitions. Direct visualization using polarized video microscopy and atomic force microscopy shows that the RNA molecules undergo cooperative rearrangements that maintain lattice order, whose cell parameters change distinctly as a function of time. The bulk lattice order throughout the transition is further supported by time-resolved diffraction data from crystals using an X-ray free electron laser. The synchronous molecular rearrangements in crystal provide the physical basis for studying large conformational changes using time-resolved crystallography and micro/nanocrystals.
DOI
Funding
NSF-STC Biology with X-ray Lasers (NSF-1231306)