title: Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases: potential markers of genetic code development.
abstract: Aminoacylation of tRNAs, catalyzed by 20 aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases, is responsible for establishing the genetic code. The enzymes are divided into two classes on the basis of the architectures of their active sites. Members of the two classes also differ in that they bind opposite sides of the tRNA acceptor stem. Importantly, specific pairs of synthetases--one from each class--can be docked simultaneously onto the acceptor stem. This article relates these specific pairings to the organization of the table of codons that defines the universal genetic code.
authors.affiliation: Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology and Depts of Molecular Biology and Chemistry, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA. lluis@scripps.edu
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ribas de Pouplana
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Schimmel
mesh_terms: D000604:Amino Acyl-tRNA Synthetases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D000818:Animals; D020134:Catalytic Domain; D003062:Codon / Q000235:genetics; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005815:Genetic Code; D006801:Humans; D008958:Models, Molecular; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D011487:Protein Conformation; D012343:RNA, Transfer / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D003062:Codon; D012343:RNA, Transfer; D000604:Amino Acyl-tRNA Synthetases