Home | Contact

Ribonuclease P (EC 3.1.26.5) (RNase P) [1,2,3] is a site specific endonuclease that generates mature tRNAs by cleaving-off the leader sequences at their 5'ends. In bacteria RNase P is known to be composed of two components: a large (about 400 base pairs) RNA (gene rnpB) and a small protein (119 to 133 amino acids) (gene rnpA). The RNA moiety of RNase P carries the catalytic activity; the function of the protein component is not yet clear although it may act as an electrostatic screen allowing the highly negatively charged RNA enzyme-substrate complex to fold into the catalytic conformation.

The sequence of rnpA is not highly conserved, however there is, in the central part of the protein, a conserved basic region. We have used this region as a signature pattern.

December 2004 / Pattern and text revised.

PROSITE method (with tools and information) covered by this documentation:

RIBONUCLEASE_P, PS00648; Bacterial ribonuclease P protein component signature  (PATTERN)

Consensus pattern: [LIVMFYSNAD]-x(2)-A-x(2)-R-[NH]-[KRQLYAT]-[LIVMFSA]-[KRA]-R-x-[LIVMTA]-[KR] Sequences known to belong to this class detected by the pattern: ALL Other sequence(s) detected in Swiss-Prot: 2

• Retrieve an alignment of Swiss-Prot true positive hits:   Clustal format, color, condensed view  / Clustal format, color  / Clustal format, plain text  / Fasta format • Retrieve the sequence logo from the alignment • Taxonomic tree view of all Swiss-Prot/TrEMBL entries matching PS00648 • Retrieve a list of all Swiss-Prot/TrEMBL entries matching PS00648 • Scan Swiss-Prot/TrEMBL entries against PS00648 • view ligand binding statistics

Matching PDB structures: 1A6F 1D6T 1NZ0 2LJP ... [ALL]

1	Authors	Pace N.R., Smith D.
	Title	Ribonuclease P: function and variation.
	Source	J. Biol. Chem. 265:3587-3590(1990).
	PubMed ID	1689306

2	Authors	Altman S.
	Title	Ribonuclease P. Postscript.
	Source	J. Biol. Chem. 265:20053-20056(1990).
	PubMed ID	1700778

3	Authors	Brown J.W., Pace N.R.
	Title	Ribonuclease P RNA and protein subunits from bacteria.
	Source	Nucleic Acids Res. 20:1451-1456(1992).
	PubMed ID	1374553

PROSITE is copyright. It is produced by the SIB Swiss Institute Bioinformatics. There are no restrictions on its use by non-profit institutions as long as its content is in no way modified. Usage by and for commercial entities requires a license agreement. For information about the licensing scheme send an email to

Prosite License or see: prosite_license.html.


View entry in original PROSITE document format
View entry in raw text format (no links)

SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics | Disclaimer