title: Maintaining genetic code through adaptations of tRNA synthetases to taxonomic domains.
abstract: The universal genetic code is determined by the aminoacylation of tRNAs. In spite of the universality of the code, there are barriers to aminoacylation across taxonomic domains. These barriers are thought to correlate with the co-segregation of sequences of synthetases and tRNAs into distinct taxonomic domains. By contrast, we show here examples of eukaryote-like synthetases that are found in certain prokaryotes. The associated tRNAs have retained their prokaryote-like character in each instance. Thus, co-segregation of domain-specific synthetases and tRNAs does not always occur. Instead, synthetases make adaptations of tRNA-protein contacts to cross taxonomic domains.
authors.affiliation: PRESTO, Department of Cell Biology, Cancer Institute, Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shiba
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Motegi
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Schimmel
mesh_terms: D000604:Amino Acyl-tRNA Synthetases / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D001105:Archaea / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics; D001419:Bacteria / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics; D001665:Binding Sites; D002965:Classification; D010802:Phylogeny; D012343:RNA, Transfer / Q000378:metabolism*; D016415:Sequence Alignment
chemical_list: D012343:RNA, Transfer; D000604:Amino Acyl-tRNA Synthetases