Total transfer RNAs were extracted from highly purified potato mitochondria. From quantitative measurements, the in vivo tRNA concentration in mitochondria was estimated to be in the range of 60 microM. Total potato mitochondrial tRNAs were fractionated by two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Thirty one individual tRNAs, which could read all sense codons, were identified by amino...

U4 small nuclear RNA is essential for trans-splicing. Here we report the cloning of U4 snRNA gene from Leptomonas collosoma and analysis of elements controlling its expression. The trypanosome U4 RNA is the smallest known, it carries an Sm-like site, and has the potential for extensive intermolecular base pairing with the U6 RNA. Sequence analysis of the U4 locus indicates the presence of a tRN...

In many bacteria and archaea, an ancestral pathway is used where asparagine and glutamine are formed from their acidic precursors while covalently linked to tRNA(Asn) and tRNA(Gln), respectively. Stable complexes formed by the enzymes of these indirect tRNA aminoacylation pathways are found in several thermophilic organisms, and are called transamidosomes. We describe here a transamidosome form...

The suppression of an amber mutation in a permissive strain of Escherichia coli can be achieved by a new tRNA species, a suppressor tRNA (for a review, see Reference 1). The tyrosine amber suppressor tRNA arises from a redundant tRNA species in the Sustrain by a single base change in the anticodon (2). However, this may not be the only mechanism to generate suppressor tRNA species, as suggested...

Understanding the mechanistic basis of the disruption of tRNA genes, as manifested in the intron-containing and split tRNAs found in Archaea, will provide considerable insight into the evolution of the tRNA molecule. However, the evolutionary processes underlying these disruptions have not yet been identified. Previously, a composite genome of the deep-branching archaeon Caldiarchaeum subterran...

The suppression of an amber mutation in a permissive strain of Escherichia coli can be achieved by a new tRNA species, a suppressor tRNA (for a review, see Reference 1). The tyrosine amber suppressor tRNA arises from a redundant tRNA species in the Sustrain by a single base change in the anticodon (2). However, this may not be the only mechanism to generate suppressor tRNA species, as suggested...

Pyrrolysine, the 22nd cotranslationally inserted amino acid, was found in the Methanosarcina barkeri monomethylamine methyltransferase protein in a position that is encoded by an in-frame UAG stop codon in the mRNA. M. barkeri encodes a special amber suppressor tRNA (tRNA(Pyl)) that presumably recognizes this UAG codon. It was reported that Lys-tRNA(Pyl) can be formed by the aminoacyl-tRNA synt...

Three tRNA genes have been isolated from a genomic library of Arabidopsis thaliana: a tRNA (GCU), a tRNA (GUA) and a tRNA (UUC) genes. These genes are located closely on the same DNA fragment. The tRNA and the tRNA genes have both 99% sequence similarity with their mitochondrial counterparts from higher plants indicating that these three tRNA genes are mitochondrial. The tRNAv gene shows a part...

Accurate aminoacylation of tRNAs by the aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (aaRSs) plays a critical role in protein translation. However, some of the aaRSs are missing in many microorganisms. Helicobacter pylori does not have a glutaminyl-tRNA synthetase (GlnRS) but has two divergent glutamyl-tRNA synthetases: GluRS1 and GluRS2. Like a canonical GluRS, GluRS1 aminoacylates tRNA(Glu1) and tRNA(Glu2). In...

The mammalian mitochondrial genome contains a single tRNA(Met) gene that gives rise to the initiator and elongator tRNA(Met). It is generally believed that mitochondrial protein synthesis begins with formylmethionyl-tRNA, which indicates that the formylation of mitochondrial Met-tRNA specifies its participation in initiation through its interaction with initiation factor 2 (IF-2). However, rece...