Post-transcriptional modifications of oat coleoptile ribonucleic acids. 5'-Terminal capping and methylation of internal nucleosides in poly(A)-rich RNA.

Evidence is presented for the occurrence of 5'-terminal capping structures in poly(A)-rich RNAs from oat coleoptile tissue. Similar to the cap structures in mRNA from other eukaryotic organisms, the 5' terminus of these oat coleoptile RNA molecules consists of 7-methylguanosine joined 5' to 5' with the adjacent (penultimate) nucleoside by means of three phosphate groups in two pyrophosphate linkages. The penultimate nucleoside contains primarily purine bases, but small amounts of pyrimidines (cytidine) are also detectable. Some monophosphorylated 5'-termini were also detected, however, they appear to occur as a result of RNA degradation. In addition to the 5 cap, oat RNA molecules are also post-transcriptionally modified with a low frequency of N6-methylations of internal adenosines.