A fast selenium derivatization strategy for crystallization and phasing of RNA structures.
Olieric, V., Rieder, U., Lang, K., Serganov, A., Schulze-Briese, C., Micura, R., Dumas, P., Ennifar, E.(2009) RNA 15: 707-715
- PubMed: 19228585 
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1261/rna.1499309
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:  
3DVZ, 3DW4, 3DW5, 3DW6, 3DW7 - PubMed Abstract: 
Site-specific 2'-methylseleno RNA labeling is a promising tool for tackling the phase problem in RNA crystallography. We have developed an efficient strategy for crystallization and structure determination of RNA and RNA/protein complexes based on preliminary crystallization screening of 2'-OCH(3)-modified RNA sequences, prior to the replacement of 2'-OCH(3) groups with their 2'-SeCH(3) counterparts. The method exploits the similar crystallization properties of 2'-OCH(3)- and 2'-SeCH(3)-modified RNAs and has been successfully validated for two test cases. In addition, our data show that 2'-SeCH(3)-modified RNA have an increased resistance to X-ray radiolysis in comparison with commonly used 5-halogen-modified RNA, which permits collection of experimental electron density maps of remarkable quality.
Organizational Affiliation: 
Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen, Switzerland.