title: Overproduction and domain structure of the glutamyl-tRNA synthetase of Escherichia coli.
abstract: The charging of glutamate on tRNA(Glu) is catalyzed by glutamyl-tRNA synthetase, a monomer of 53.8 kilodaltons in Escherichia coli. To obtain the large amounts of enzyme necessary for the identification of structural domains, we have inserted the structural gene gltX in the conditional runaway-replication plasmid pOU61, which led to a 350-fold overproduction of glutamyl-tRNA synthetase. Partial proteolysis of this enzyme revealed the existence of preferential sites of attack that, according to their N-terminal sequences, delimit regions of 12.9, 2.3, 12.1, and 26.5 kilodaltons from the N- to C-terminal of the enzyme. Their sizes suggest that the 2.3-kilodalton fragment is a hinge structure, and that those of 12.9, 12.1, and 26.5 kilodaltons are domain structures. The 12.9-kilodalton domain of the glutamyl-tRNA synthetase of E. coli is the only long region of this enzyme displaying a good amino acid sequence similarity with the glutaminyl-tRNA synthetase of Escherichia coli.
authors.affiliation: Département de biochimie, Faculté des sciences et de génie, Université Laval, Sainte-Foy (Québec), Canada.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Brisson
authors.forename: Y V
authors.initials: YV
authors.lastname: Brun
authors.forename: A W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Bell
authors.forename: P H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Roy
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lapointe
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000604:Amino Acyl-tRNA Synthetases / Q000378:metabolism*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000201:enzymology*; D005975:Glutamate-tRNA Ligase / Q000378:metabolism*; D013482:Superoxide Dismutase / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D013482:Superoxide Dismutase; D000604:Amino Acyl-tRNA Synthetases; D005975:Glutamate-tRNA Ligase