The 3' terminal sequence of Escherichia coli 16S ribosomal RNA: complementarity to nonsense triplets and ribosome binding sites

Abstract

With a stepwise degradation and terminal labeling procedure the 3' terminal sequence of E. coli 16S ribosomal RNA is shown to be Pyd A C C U C C U U A(OH). It is suggested that this region of the RNA is able to interact with mRNA and that the 3' terminal U U A(OH) is involved in the termination of protein synthesis through base pairing with terminator codons. The sequence A C C U C C could recognize a conserved sequence found in the ribosome binding sites of various coliphage mRNAs; it may thus be involved in the formation of the mRNA 30S subunit complex.