title: Presence of tRNA-dependent pathways correlates with high cysteine content in methanogenic Archaea.
abstract: Archeal proteomes can be clustered into two groups based on their cysteine content. One group of proteomes displays a low cysteine content ( approximately 0.7% of the entire proteome), whereas the second group contains twice as many cysteines as the first ( approximately 1.3%). All cysteine-rich organisms belong to the methanogenic Archaea, which generates special cysteine clusters associated with primitive metabolic reactions. Our findings suggest that cysteine plays an important role in early forms of life.
authors.affiliation: Department of Structural Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
authors.forename: Liron
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Klipcan
authors.forename: Milana
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Frenkel-Morgenstern
authors.forename: Mark G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Safro
mesh_terms: D000596:Amino Acids / Q000096:biosynthesis; D000604:Amino Acyl-tRNA Synthetases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D019843:Archaeal Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D003545:Cysteine / Q000032:analysis; D019605:Euryarchaeota / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D020745:Genome, Archaeal; D008697:Methane / Q000378:metabolism; D010802:Phylogeny; D020543:Proteome; D019642:RNA, Archaeal / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D012343:RNA, Transfer / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids; D019843:Archaeal Proteins; D020543:Proteome; D019642:RNA, Archaeal; D012343:RNA, Transfer; D000604:Amino Acyl-tRNA Synthetases; D003545:Cysteine; D008697:Methane