Wobble base pair

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Wobble base pairs for inosine and guanine

In molecular biology, a wobble base pair is a non-Watson-Crick base pairing between

two nucleotides in RNAmolecules. The four main wobble base pairs are guanine-uracil, inosine-uracil, inosine-
adenine, and inosine-cytosine (G-U, I-U, I-A and I-C). The thermodynamic stability of a wobble base pair is
comparable to that of a Watson-Crick base pair. Wobble base pairs are fundamental in RNA secondary
structure and are critical for the proper translation of the genetic code.

Contents
 [hide]
 1 tRNA wobble
o 1.1 tRNA Base
pairing schemes
2 References
3 External links

[edit]tRNA wobble
In the genetic code, there are 43 = 64 possible codons (tri-nucleotide sequences). For translation, each of
these codons requires a tRNA molecule with a complementary anticodon. If each tRNA molecule paired with its
complementary mRNA codon using canonical Watson-Crick base pairing, then 64 types (species) of tRNA
molecule would be required. In the standard genetic code, three of these 64 codons are stop codons, which
terminate translation by binding to release factors rather than tRNA molecules, so canonical pairing would
require 61 species of tRNA. Since most organisms have fewer than 45 species of tRNA [1], some tRNA species
must pair with more than one codon. In 1966, Francis Crickproposed the Wobble hypothesis to account for this.
He postulated that the 5' base on the anticodon, which binds to the3' base on the mRNA, was not as spatially
confined as the other two bases, and could, thus, have non-standard base pairing. [2]

As an example, yeast tRNAPhe has the anticodon 5'-GmAA-3' and can recognize the codons 5'-UUC-3' and 5'-
UUU-3'. It is, therefore, possible for non-Watson–Crick base pairing to occur at the third codon position, i.e., the
3' nucleotide of themRNA codon and the 5' nucleotide of the tRNA anticodon.[3]

[edit]tRNA Base pairing schemes

The original wobble pairing rules, as proposed by Crick. Watson-Crick base pairs are shown in bold, wobble
base pairs in italic:

tRNA 5' anticodon base mRNA 3' codon base

A U

C G

G C or U

U A or G
I A or C or U

Revised pairing rules

tRNA 5' anticodon base mRNA 3' codon base

G U,C

C G

k2C A

A U,C,(A),G

unmodified U U,(C),A,G

xm5s2U,xm5Um,Um,xm5U A,(G)

xo5U U,A,G

I A,C,U