Cleavage site selection by M1 RNA the catalytic subunit of Escherichia coli RNase P, is influenced by pH.

We have studied cleavage site selection by M1 RNA, the catalytic subunit of Escherichia coli RNase P, under various reaction conditions using tRNA precursors which are cleaved at two positions. Our results showed that the preference of cleavage site changed with variations in pH or Mg2+ concentration. By contrast, no difference in cleavage site selection was observed with increasing pH in the presence of Ca2+ as the only divalent metal ion. Depending on the identity of the nucleotide at position "+ 72", replacement of Mg2+ with Ca2+ resulted in a change of the main cleavage site irrespective of pH. We conclude that cleavage in the presence of Ca2+ compared to cleavage in the presence of Mg2+ has different structural requirements at and near the cleavage site. UV cross-linking revealed that close points between M1 RNA and its substrate were the same irrespective of pH or the identity of the divalent cation. Our results also showed that the observed pH effects are due to changes in the catalytic cleavage rates rather than to global, structural rearrangements. These data are discussed in terms of metal ion binding near the cleavage sites in the enzyme-substrate complex.