Juli Feigon Laboratory

The cover shows the solution structure of the conserved pseudoknot in the core domain of human telomerase RNA, rendered as bonds covered by a molecular surface (colored by structural element). Three minor groove base triples, a junction loop-loop Hoogsteen base pair, and two major groove base triples (shown above the structure and as background) form an extended triple helix that stabilizes the pseudoknot structure. Mutations that disrupt the tertiary interactions affect telomerase activity.

For more details, see the article by Theimer et al., pp. 671–682, in the March 4, 2005 issue of Molecular Cell.