Cloning, in vitro transcription, and biological activity of Escherichia coli 23S ribosomal RNA.

The 23S rRNA gene was excised from the rrnB operon of pKK3535 and ligated into pUC19 behind the strong class III T7 promoter so that the correct 5' end of mature 23S RNA was produced upon transcription by T7 RNA polymerase. At the 3' end, generation of a restriction site for linearization required the addition of 2 adenosine residues to the mature 23S sequence. In vitro runoff transcripts were indistinguishable from natural 23S RNA in size on denaturing gels and in 5'-terminal sequence. The length and sequence of the 3' terminal T1 fragment was also as expected from the DNA sequence, except that an additional C, A, or U residue was added to 21%, 18%, or 5% of the molecules, respectively. Typical transcription reactions yielded 500-700 moles RNA per mole template. This transcript was used as a substrate for methyl transfer from S-adenosyl methionine catalyzed by Escherichia coli cell extracts. The majority (50-65%) of activity observed in a crude (S30) extract appeared in the post-ribosomal supernatant (S100). Activities catalyzing formation of m5C, m5U, m2G, and m6A residues in the synthetic transcript were observed.