Aminoacylation and translational quality control strategy employed by leucyl-tRNA synthetase from a human pathogen with genetic code ambiguity

Nucleic Acids Res. 2013 Nov;41(21):9825-38. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkt741. Epub 2013 Aug 22.

Abstract

Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases should ensure high accuracy in tRNA aminoacylation. However, the absence of significant structural differences between amino acids always poses a direct challenge for some aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases, such as leucyl-tRNA synthetase (LeuRS), which require editing function to remove mis-activated amino acids. In the cytoplasm of the human pathogen Candida albicans, the CUG codon is translated as both Ser and Leu by a uniquely evolved CatRNA(Ser)(CAG). Its cytoplasmic LeuRS (CaLeuRS) is a crucial component for CUG codon ambiguity and harbors only one CUG codon at position 919. Comparison of the activity of CaLeuRS-Ser(919) and CaLeuRS-Leu(919) revealed yeast LeuRSs have a relaxed tRNA recognition capacity. We also studied the mis-activation and editing of non-cognate amino acids by CaLeuRS. Interestingly, we found that CaLeuRS is naturally deficient in tRNA-dependent pre-transfer editing for non-cognate norvaline while displaying a weak tRNA-dependent pre-transfer editing capacity for non-cognate α-amino butyric acid. We also demonstrated that post-transfer editing of CaLeuRS is not tRNA(Leu) species-specific. In addition, other eukaryotic but not archaeal or bacterial LeuRSs were found to recognize CatRNA(Ser)(CAG). Overall, we systematically studied the aminoacylation and editing properties of CaLeuRS and established a characteristic LeuRS model with naturally deficient tRNA-dependent pre-transfer editing, which increases LeuRS types with unique editing patterns.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Aminobutyrates / metabolism
  • Archaea / enzymology
  • Bacteria / enzymology
  • Candida albicans / enzymology
  • Genetic Code
  • Humans
  • Leucine-tRNA Ligase / chemistry
  • Leucine-tRNA Ligase / metabolism*
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • RNA, Transfer, Leu / metabolism
  • RNA, Transfer, Ser / metabolism
  • Sequence Alignment
  • Species Specificity
  • Transfer RNA Aminoacylation*
  • Valine / analogs & derivatives
  • Valine / metabolism

Substances

  • Aminobutyrates
  • RNA, Transfer, Leu
  • RNA, Transfer, Ser
  • alpha-aminobutyric acid
  • norvaline
  • Leucine-tRNA Ligase
  • Valine