In most prokaryotes Asn-tRNA and Gln-tRNA are formed by amidation of aspartate and glutamate mischarged onto tRNA and tRNA, respectively. Coexistence in the organism of mischarged Asp-tRNA and Glu-tRNA and the homologous Asn-tRNA and Gln-tRNA does not, however, lead to erroneous incorporation of Asp and Glu into proteins, since EF-Tu discriminates the misacylated tRNAs from the correctly charge...

The recognition of human tRNA(Leu) or tRNA(Ser) by cognate aminoacyl- tRNA synthetases has distinct requirements. Only one base change (A73-->G) in tRNA(Leu) is required to generate an efficient serine acceptor in vitro, whereas several changes in three structural domains (the acceptor stem, DHU loop and long extra arm) of tRNA(Ser) are necessary in order to produce a leucine acceptor. Hence, t...

In the cytoplasm of higher eukaryotic cells, aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (aaRSs) have polypeptide chain extensions appended to conventional prokaryotic-like synthetase domains. The supplementary domains, referred to as tRNA-interacting factors (tIFs), provide the core synthetases with potent tRNA-binding capacities, a functional requirement related to the low concentration of free tRNA prevailin...

tRNA(3Lys) is a primer for reverse transcription in human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), and the anticodon of tRNA(3Lys) has been implicated in playing a role in both its placement onto the HIV-1 genome and its interaction with HIV-1 reverse transcriptase (RT). In this work, the anticodon in a tRNA(3Lys) gene was changed from UUU to CUA (tRNA(3Lys)Su+) or, in addition, G-73 was altered ...

Poly-tRNA theory have revealed that the tRNA gene-clusters in the Bacillus subtilis trrnD- and rrnB-operons are relics of early peptide-synthesizing RNA apparatus. The trrnD-type and rrnB-type poly-tRNA models were re-analyzed by using recent databases. The results elucidated that the 16 amino acid (aa)-trrnD- and the 21 aa-rrnB-peptides (whose aa sequences are in the order of aa specificities ...

Although both tRNA(Lys) and tRNA(Glu) of E. coli possess similar anticodon loop sequences, with the same hypermodified nucleoside 5-methylaminomethyl-2-thiouridine (mnm5s2U) at the first position of their anticodons, the anticodon loop structures of these two tRNAs containing the modified nucleoside appear to be quite different as judged from the following observations. (1) The CD band derived ...

In most prokaryotes Asn-tRNA(Asn) and Gln-tRNA(Gln) are formed by amidation of aspartate and glutamate mischarged onto tRNA(Asn) and tRNA(Gln), respectively. Coexistence in the organism of mischarged Asp-tRNA(Asn) and Glu-tRNA(Gln) and the homologous Asn-tRNA(Asn) and Gln-tRNA(Gln) does not, however, lead to erroneous incorporation of Asp and Glu into proteins, since EF-Tu discriminates the mis...

Transfer RNAs (tRNAs) are one of the classical non-coding RNAs, with lengths of approximately 70–100 bases. The secondary structure of tRNAs can be represented as a cloverleaf with four stems, and the three-dimensional structure as an “L” shape. Historically, the basic function of the tRNAs as essential components of translation was established in the 1960s, when it was found that each tRNA is ...

We have developed three strategies to discriminate among the three types of tRNA genes with anticodon CAT (tRNA(Ile), elongator tRNA(Met) and initiator tRNA(fMet)) in bacterial genomes. With these strategies, we have classified the tRNA genes from 234 bacterial and several organellar genomes. These sequences, in an aligned or unaligned format, may be used for the identification and annotation o...

Transfer RNA from soybean (Glycine max) cotyledons was purified to homogeneity followed by the purification of the family of leucine tRNA via benzoylated diethylaminoethyl cellulose (BDC) chromatography. Nonacylated total purified tRNA was salicylhydroxamate (SHAM) modified by the phenoxyacetyl method and fractionated into three peaks on a BDC column. The first peak containing bulk tRNA with no...