William H. McClain

Last updated
William H. McClain
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater Iowa Wesleyan University
Purdue University
Known forDissection of RNA-protein recognition
AwardsFellow, Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research
Research Career Development Award, NIH
Foundation Lecturer, American Society for Microbiology
Elected Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Scientific career
Fields Molecular biology
Institutions University of Wisconsin-Madison
Website http://williamhmcclain.com/index.php

William H. McClain is an American molecular biologist and academic. He was the Halvorson Professor of Bacteriology and Molecular Biology, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. [1] McClain is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, [2] and, formerly, a Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research Fellow. He was a Board Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Midwest Center. McClain is a pioneer in the biological sciences known for the dissection of RNA-protein recognition primarily through genetic and biochemical means in bacteria. [3]

Contents

Career

Following his Doctoral degree with Sewell P. Champe, [4] McClain worked with Sydney Brenner and Francis Crick. Subsequently, he joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1971 and served there as the Halvorson Professor of Bacteriology and Molecular Biology. His research students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison include Hyunsic Choi, Christine Guthrie, Gail P. Mazzara, Guy Plunkett, and Jonathan Seidman. [1]

Research

McClain has published 100 research articles focusing on tRNA structure and function. [5] He has delivered invited lectures at international meetings. Since 1970, he received grants from National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Transfer RNA Acceptor Identity

McClain's computer analysis allowed him to identify nucleotides in tRNAs that determine these molecules’ acceptor specificities. His identification in 1988 [6] of a helical tRNA irregularity set up by a G-U wobble base pair in the alanine system and again in 2002 [7] was confirmed in 2014 by direct crystal structure analysis. [8] In other studies, McClain demonstrated the importance of tRNA backbone-mediated interactions with synthetase in mediating molecular recognition conferring aminoacylation specificity. [9]

Transfer RNA Biosynthesis

McClain found the surprising existence of precursors with multiple tRNA species. [10] [11] Producing the mature tRNAs involved another novelty as adding the 3'- CCAOH amino acid accepting ends was a prerequisite to ribonuclease P cleavage [12] [13]

He gave a seven-step pathway leading from transcribed DNA to RNA intermediates that accumulated in successions of mutant cells lacking germane processing enzymes and whose nucleotide sequences defined the ordered steps. In his paper published in 1975, he described three steps to convert a large precursor RNA into serine and proline transfer RNAs and deduced a part of the pathway leading to the formation of the 3'-CCAOH sequence in the transfer RNAs. [12] Furthermore, he introduced simple helical substrates for an RNA enzyme and discussed the significance of the 3′-CCAOH nucleotide residues in processing helical and normal tRNA precursors. [13]

Discovery of the rIIB Protein of T4 Bacteriophage

In the late 1960s, McClain discovered the rII B cistron polypeptide of phage T4, [14] work that garnered the attention of Sydney Brenner and Francis Crick with whom he would join in Cambridge, England.

Awards and honors

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">RNA polymerase</span> Enzyme that synthesizes RNA from DNA

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References

  1. 1 2 "UW Bacteriology | People | Faculty profile for William H. McClain". bact.wisc.edu. Retrieved 2022-01-25.
  2. ↑ "William H. H. McClain". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 2022-01-25.
  3. ↑ "William H. McClain". Research Gate. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
  4. ↑ "Champe, Sewell P".
  5. ↑ "William H. McClain". Google Scholar. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
  6. ↑ McClain, W. H.; Chen, Y. M.; Foss, K.; Schneider, J. (1988). "Association of transfer RNA acceptor identity with a helical irregularity". Science. 242 (4886): 1681–1684. Bibcode:1988Sci...242.1681M. doi:10.1126/science.2462282. PMID   2462282.
  7. ↑ Choi, H.; Otten, S.; Schneider, J.; McClain, W. H. (2002). "Genetic perturbations of RNA reveal structure-based recognition in protein-RNA interaction". Journal of Molecular Biology. 324 (4): 573–576. doi:10.1016/s0022-2836(02)01098-7. PMID   12460561.
  8. ↑ Naganuma, M.; Sekine, S.; Chong, Y. E.; Guo, M.; Yang, X. L.; Gamper, H.; Hou, Y. M.; Schimmel, P.; Yokoyama, S. (2014). "The selective tRNA aminoacylation mechanism based on a single G•U pair". Nature. 510 (7506): 507–511. Bibcode:2014Natur.510..507N. doi:10.1038/nature13440. PMC   4323281 . PMID   24919148.
  9. ↑ McClain, William H.; Schneider, Jay; Bhattacharya, Subhra; Gabriel, Kay (1998-01-20). "The importance of tRNA backbone-mediated interactions with synthetase for aminoacylation". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 95 (2): 460–465. Bibcode:1998PNAS...95..460M. doi: 10.1073/pnas.95.2.460 . ISSN   0027-8424. PMC   18442 . PMID   9435214.
  10. ↑ McClain, William H.; Guthrie, Christine; Barrell, B. G. (1972). "Eight Transfer RNAs Induced by Infection of Escherichia coli with Bacteriophage T4". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 69 (12): 3703–3707. doi: 10.1073/pnas.69.12.3703 . PMC   389853 . PMID   4566457.
  11. ↑ Guthrie, Christine; Seidman, J. G.; Altman, S.; Barrell, B. G.; Smith, J. D.; McClain, W. H. (1973). "Identification of tRNA Precursor Molecules made by Phage T4". Nature New Biology. 246 (149): 6–11. doi:10.1038/newbio246006a0. PMID   4519024.
  12. 1 2 Seidman, J. G.; McClain, W. H. (April 1975). "Three steps in conversion of large precursor RNA into serine and proline transfer RNAs". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 72 (4): 1491–1495. Bibcode:1975PNAS...72.1491S. doi: 10.1073/pnas.72.4.1491 . ISSN   0027-8424. PMC   432562 . PMID   1093182.
  13. 1 2 McClain, William H.; Guerrier-Takada, Cecilia; Altman, Sidney (1987). "Model Substrates for an RNA Enzyme". Science. 238 (4826): 527–530. Bibcode:1987Sci...238..527M. doi:10.1126/science.2443980. PMID   2443980.
  14. ↑ McClain, W. H.; Champe, S. P. (1970). "GENETIC ALTERATIONS OF THE rll B CISTRON POLYPEPTIDE OF PHAGE T4I". Genetics. 66 (1): 11–21. doi:10.1093/genetics/66.1.11. PMC   1212478 . PMID   5512468.
  15. ↑ "William H. H. McClain".
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