Hypermodified alkali-stable dinucleotide sequences in each of the high-molecular-weight (26S and 18S) ribosomal RNA species of wheat

Abstract

Two hypermodified, alkali-stable dinucleotide sequences, each containing abase modification in addition to sugar methylation, are known to be present in wheat embryo 26S + 18S rRNA (Gray, M. W. (1974) Biochemistry 13, 5453–5463). Quantitative analysis of unfractionated 26S + 18S rRNA had suggested that each of these sequences (Cm-ψp and ψm-Ap, where Cm = O2′-methylcytidine and ψm = O2′-methylpseudouridine) was present in either the 18S or the 26S rRNA species, but not in both, at a frequency of not more than once per chain. In the study reported here, the individual 32P-labeled 18S and 26S rRNA species were isolated from viable wheat embryos germinated in the presence of [32P]orthophosphate. From analyses of phosphodiesterase and alkaline hydrolysates of the separated [32P]RNAs, we conclude that ψm-Ap is confined to wheat cytosol 18S rRNA, whereas Cm-ψp is localized in wheat cytosol 26S rRNA. The presence of ψm in the 18S rRNA of wheat stands in contrast with the situation in animal cells, where this hypermodified nucleoside is located in the 28S rRNA (Khan, M. S. N. &Maden, B. E. H. (1976) J. Mol. Biol. 101, 235–254)