Amino acid modifications on tRNA

• 来源期刊: 生物化学与生物物理学报（英文版）
• 关键词: aminoacyl-tRNA indirect pathways tRNAdependent amidotransferase tRNA-dependent cysteine biosynthesis selenocysteine biosynthesis
• 年，卷（期）: 2008,（7）
• 页码范围: 539-553
• 页数: 15页
• 语种: 英文

摘要

The accurate formation of cognate aminoacyl-transfer RNAs (aa-tRNAs) is essential for the fidelity of translation.Most amino acids are esterified onto their cognate tRNA isoacceptors directly by aa.tRNA synthetases.However,in the case of four amino acids (Gin,Asn,Cys and Sec),aminoacyl-tRNAs are made through indirect pathways in many organisms across all three domains of life.The process begins with the charging ofnoncognate amino acids to tRNAs by a specialized synthetase in the case of Cys-tRNAcys formation or by synthetases with relaxed specificity,such as the non-discriminating glutamyl-tRNA,non-discriminating aspartyl-tRNA and seryl-tRNA synthetases.The resulting misacylated tRNAs are then converted to cognate pairs through transformation of the amino acids on the tRNA,which is catalyzed by a group of tRNA-dependent modifying enzymes,such as tRNA-dependent amidotransferases,Sep-tRNA:Cys-tRNA synthase,O-phosphoseryi-tRNA kinase and Sep-tRNA:Sec-tRNA synthase.The majority of these indirect pathways are widely spread in all domains of life and thought to be part of the evolutionary process.