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  • Title: Amino acid discrimination by arginyl-tRNA synthetases as revealed by an examination of natural specificity variants.
    Author: Igloi GL, Schiefermayr E.
    Journal: FEBS J; 2009 Mar; 276(5):1307-18. PubMed ID: 19187230.
    Abstract:
    L-canavanine occurs as a toxic non-protein amino acid in more than 1500 leguminous plants. One mechanism of its toxicity is its incorporation into proteins, replacing L-arginine and giving rise to functionally aberrant polypeptides. A comparison between the recombinant arginyl-tRNA synthetases from a canavanine producer (jack bean) and from a related non-producer (soybean) provided an opportunity to study the mechanism that has evolved to discriminate successfully between the proteinogenic amino acid and its non-protein analogue. In contrast to the enzyme from jack bean, the soybean enzyme effectively produced canavanyl-tRNA(Arg) when using RNA transcribed from the jack bean tRNA(ACG) gene. The corresponding k(cat)/K(M) values gave a discrimination factor of 485 for the jack bean enzyme. The arginyl-tRNA synthetase does not possess hydrolytic post-transfer editing activity. In a heterologous system containing either native Escherichia coli tRNA(Arg) or the modification-lacking E. coli transcript RNA, efficient discrimination between L-arginine and L-canavanine by both plant enzymes (but not by the E. coli arginyl-tRNA synthetase) occurred. Thus, interaction of structural features of the tRNA with the enzyme plays a significant role in determining the accuracy of tRNA arginylation. Of the potential amino acid substrates tested, apart from L-canavanine, only L-thioarginine was active in aminoacylation. As it is an equally good substrate for the arginyl-tRNA synthetase from both plants, it is concluded that the higher discriminatory power of the jack bean enzyme towards L-canavanine does not necessarily provide increased protection against analogues in general, but appears to have evolved specifically to avoid auto-toxicity.
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