W-band31P-ENDOR on the high-affinity Mn2+ binding site in the minimal and tertiary stabilized hammerhead ribozymes

The catalytic activity of the tertiary stabilized hammerhead ribozyme (tsHHRz) is by three orders of magnitude higher than the one of the long-known minimal construct (mHHRz). This gives rise to the question whether the single high-affinity manganese(II) binding site present in both ribozymes is located closer to the cleavage site and the transition state in the tsHHRz than in the mHHRz, which would make a direct involvement of this metal(II) ion in the bond-breaking step more likely. Here, we used W-band³¹P-Davies-ENDOR (electron-nuclear double resonance) to complement earlier reported¹⁴N-ESEEM/HYSCORE (electron spin echo envelope modulation/hyperfine sublevel correlation) studies. The³¹P-ENDOR spectrum of the mHHRz revealed a doublet with a splitting of 8.4(±0.5) MHz but unresolved hyperfine anisotropy. Such a large splitting indicates an inner-sphere coordination of a phosphate backbone group with a significant amount of spin density on the phosphorous nucleus. This is in good agreement with the³¹P isotropic hyperfine constant,A _iso(³¹P), of +7.8 MHz obtained by density functional theory calculations on the structure of the Mn²⁺ binding site as found in crystals of the same ribozyme. This supports the idea that the structure and location of the binding site in the mHHRz is in frozen buffer similar to that found in the crystal. Since the W-band ENDOR spectrum of the tsHHRz also shows a³¹P splitting of 8.4(±0.5) MHz, the local structures of both binding sites appear to be similar, which agrees with the coincidence of the¹⁴N data. An involvement of the high-affinity Mn²⁺ ion in the catalytic step seems therefore unlikely.