In prokaryotes and archaea transfer ribonucleic acid (tRNA) stability as well as cellular UV protection relies on the post-transcriptional modification of uracil at position 8 (U8) of tRNAs by the 4-thiouridine synthetase ThiI. Here, we report three crystal structures of ThiI from Thermotoga maritima in complex with a truncated tRNA. The RNA is mainly bound by the N-terminal ferredoxin-like domain (NFLD) and the THUMP domain of one subunit within the ThiI homo-dimer thereby positioning the U8 close to the catalytic center in the pyrophosphatase domain of the other subunit. The recognition of the 3’-CCA end by the THUMP domain yields a molecular ruler defining the specificity for U8 thiolation. This first structure of a THUMP/NFLD-RNA complex might serve as paradigm for the RNA recognition by THUMP domains of other proteins. The ternary ThiI–RNA–ATP complex shows no significant structural changes due to adenosine triphosphate (ATP) binding, but two different states of active site loops are observed independent of the nucleotide loading state. Thereby conformational changes of the active site are coupled with conformational changes of the bound RNA. The ThiI–RNA complex structures indicate that full-length tRNA has to adopt a non-canonical conformation upon binding to ThiI.

The biosynthesis of 4-thiouridine (s 4 U) in Escherichia coli tRNA requires the action of both the thiamin pathway enzyme ThiI and the cysteine desulfurase IscS. IscS catalyzes sulfur transfer from L-cysteine to ThiI, which utilizes Mg-ATP to activate uridine 8 in tRNA and transfers sulfur to give s 4 U. In this work, we show through deletion analysis of unmodified E. coli tRNA Phe that the minimum substrate for s 4 U modification is a mini-helix comprising the stacked acceptor and T stems containing an internal bulged region. The size of the bulged loop must be at least 4 nucleotides and contain the target uridine as the first nucleotide. Replacement of the T loop sequence with a tetraloop in the deletion substrate increases activity and shows that the T⌿C primary sequence is not a recognition element. An unmodified tRNA Phe transcript in which the 3 -terminal ACCA sequence is removed to give a blunt terminus has <0.1% activity, although the addition of a single overhanging base essentially restores activity. In addition, reducing the distance of the 3 terminus relative to U8 by as little as 1 bp severely impairs activity. By dissecting a minimal RNA substrate in the T loop region, a two-piece system consisting of a substrate RNA and a "guide" RNA is efficiently modified. Our results indicate that outside of the modified U8, there is no primary sequence requirement for substrate recognition. However, the secondary and tertiary structure restrictions appear sufficient to explain why s 4 U modification is limited in the cell to tRNA.

Benzylic organozinc reagents generated by insertion of zinc metal into benzyl-bromine bonds react with alkenyl(phenyl)iodonium triflates to provide single stereoisomers of trisubstituted olefins. The extremely high reactivity of the phenyliodonio moiety allows these reactions to be performed in the absence of copper salts or palladium catalysts. The reaction is performed from -40 degrees C to room temperature in THF. Excellent yields of the desired cross-coupled products have been obtained despite the occurrence of a competing electron-transfer-induced fragmentation.

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