title: Exploring the evolutionary diversity and assembly modes of multi-aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase complexes: lessons from unicellular organisms.
abstract: Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (aaRSs) are ubiquitous and ancient enzymes, mostly known for their essential role in generating aminoacylated tRNAs. During the last two decades, many aaRSs have been found to perform additional and equally crucial tasks outside translation. In metazoans, aaRSs have been shown to assemble, together with non-enzymatic assembly proteins called aaRSs-interacting multifunctional proteins (AIMPs), into so-called multi-synthetase complexes (MSCs). Metazoan MSCs are dynamic particles able to specifically release some of their constituents in response to a given stimulus. Upon their release from MSCs, aaRSs can reach other subcellular compartments, where they often participate to cellular processes that do not exploit their primary function of synthesizing aminoacyl-tRNAs. The dynamics of MSCs and the expansion of the aaRSs functional repertoire are features that are so far thought to be restricted to higher and multicellular eukaryotes. However, much can be learnt about how MSCs are assembled and function from apparently 'simple' organisms. Here we provide an overview on the diversity of these MSCs, their composition, mode of assembly and the functions that their constituents, namely aaRSs and AIMPs, exert in unicellular organisms.
authors.affiliation: UMR 'Génétique Moléculaire, Génomique, Microbiologie', CNRS, Université de Strasbourg, 21 rue René Descartes, 67084 Strasbourg Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Daphné
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Laporte
authors.affiliation: UMR 'Génétique Moléculaire, Génomique, Microbiologie', CNRS, Université de Strasbourg, 21 rue René Descartes, 67084 Strasbourg Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Jonathan L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Huot
authors.affiliation: UMR 'Génétique Moléculaire, Génomique, Microbiologie', CNRS, Université de Strasbourg, 21 rue René Descartes, 67084 Strasbourg Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Gaétan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bader
authors.affiliation: UMR 'Génétique Moléculaire, Génomique, Microbiologie', CNRS, Université de Strasbourg, 21 rue René Descartes, 67084 Strasbourg Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Ludovic
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Enkler
authors.affiliation: UMR 'Génétique Moléculaire, Génomique, Microbiologie', CNRS, Université de Strasbourg, 21 rue René Descartes, 67084 Strasbourg Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Senger
authors.affiliation: UMR 'Génétique Moléculaire, Génomique, Microbiologie', CNRS, Université de Strasbourg, 21 rue René Descartes, 67084 Strasbourg Cedex, France. Electronic address: h.becker@unistra.fr.
authors.forename: Hubert Dominique
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Becker
mesh_terms: D000604:Amino Acyl-tRNA Synthetases / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D000818:Animals; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D006801:Humans; D020836:Protein Structure, Quaternary; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D000604:Amino Acyl-tRNA Synthetases
keywords: AIMP; Assembly mode; EMAPII domain; Evolution; GST-like domain; Multi-aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase complex; Unicellular; WHEP domain