title: tRNA recognition and evolution of determinants in seryl-tRNA synthesis.
abstract: We have analyzed the evolution of recognition of tRNAsSerby seryl-tRNA synthetases, and compared it to other type 2 tRNAs, which contain a long extra arm. In Eubacteria and chloroplasts this type of tRNA is restricted to three families: tRNALeu, tRNASer and tRNATyr. tRNALeuand tRNASer also carry a long extra arm in Archaea, Eukarya and all organelles with the exception of animal mitochondria. In contrast, the long extra arm of tRNATyr is far less conserved: it was drastically shortened after the separation of Archaea and Eukarya from Eubacteria, and it is also truncated in animal mitochondria. The high degree of phylo-genetic divergence in the length of tRNA variable arms, which are recognized by both class I and class II aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases, makes type 2 tRNA recognition an ideal system with which to study how tRNA discrimination may have evolved in tandem with the evolution of other components of the translation machinery.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lenhard
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Orellana
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ibba
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Weygand-Durasević
mesh_terms: D000215:Acylation; D000818:Animals; D004926:Escherichia coli; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D010802:Phylogeny; D014176:Protein Biosynthesis; D012345:RNA, Transfer, Amino Acid-Specific / Q000378:metabolism; D012346:RNA, Transfer, Amino Acyl / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D012714:Serine-tRNA Ligase / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D012345:RNA, Transfer, Amino Acid-Specific; D012346:RNA, Transfer, Amino Acyl; C036928:tRNA, selenocysteine-; D012714:Serine-tRNA Ligase