Congruence of evidence for a Methanopyrus-proximal root of life based on transfer RNA and aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase genes.
Among 60 organisms, the intraspecies genetic distances between tRNAs cognate for different amino acids, between the initiator and elongator tRNAs for Met, and between potentially paralogous pairs of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases are found to be at a minimum within the Methanopyrus kandleri genome. These results indicate an exact congruence between the evidence from tRNA and aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase genes locating the root of life closest to this organism.
Xue
Hong
H
Department of Biochemistry and Applied Genomics Laboratory, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, PR China.
Ng
Siu-Kin
SK
Tong
Ka-Lok
KL
Wong
J Tze-Fei
JT
D000596:Amino Acids / Q000096:biosynthesis; D000604:Amino Acyl-tRNA Synthetases / Q000235:genetics*; D001105:Archaea / Q000235:genetics*; D019605:Euryarchaeota; D010802:Phylogeny; D012343:RNA, Transfer / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
D000596:Amino Acids; D012343:RNA, Transfer; D000604:Amino Acyl-tRNA Synthetases