The New Aspects of Aminoacyl-Trna Synthetases
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Vol. 47 No. 3/2000 821–834 QUARTERLY Review The new aspects of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases. Maciej Szymañski, Marzanna Deniziak and Jan Barciszewski½ Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences, 60-704 Poznañ, Poland Received: 29 December, 1999; revised: 24 May, 2000; accepted: 02 June, 2000 Key words: aminoacylation, aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases, protein biosynthesis, tRNA Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (AARS) are essential proteins found in all living organ- isms. They form a diverse group of enzymes that ensure the fidelity of transfer of ge- netic information from the DNA into the protein. AARS catalyse the attachment of amino acids to transfer RNAs and thereby establish the rules of the genetic code by virtue of matching the nucleotide triplet of the anticodon with its cognate amino acid. Here we summarise the effects of recent studies on this interesting family of multifunctional enzymes. The universal genetic code is established in a only components of the gene expression appa- single aminoacylation reaction of transfer ri- ratus that function at the interface between bonucleic acids (tRNAs). The reaction is nucleic acids and proteins. This leads to three catalysed by the family of aminoacyl-tRNA interesting aspects of studies on amino- synthetases (AARS) each of which activates acyl-tRNA synthetases: (i) the mechanism of an amino acid by binding to ATP and trans- amino acid recognition and chemical activa- fers it to the 3¢ end of the cognate tRNA. The tion, (ii) the specificity of tRNA recognition, conservation of the genetic code suggests that and (iii) the origin and evolution of AARS [3]. AARS evolved early and were probably among AARS constitute a family of 20 cellular en- the first protein enzymes to emerge from the zymes that are responsible for specific RNA world [1, 2]. Interestingly, AARS are the esterification of tRNAs with their cognate .This work was supported by grant No. 6 P04A 005 14 from the State Committee for Scientific Research (KBN, Poland). ½Correspondence should be adressed to: Prof. dr hab. Jan Barciszewski, Institute of Bioorganic Chemis- try of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Z. Noskowskiego 12/14, 60-704 Poznañ, Poland; tel. (48 61) 852 8503 ext. 132; fax (48 61) 852 0532; e-mail: [email protected] Abbreviations: AARS, aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (e.g. GlnRS, glutaminyl-tRNA synthetase); aa-tRNA, aminoacyl-transfer ribonucleic acid; ApnA, diadenosine oligophosphates; EDD, embryo-defec- tive development; EMAP II, endothelial monocyte-activating polypeptide II; NLS, nuclear localization signal. 822 M. Szymañski and others 2000 amino acids, and thus are essential in main- AMP. The first step takes place in the absence taining the fidelity of the protein biosynthesis of tRNA, however, in some cases (GlnRS, process. In Prokaryota their number varies GluRS and ArgRS) amino acid activation is due to doubling of some aminoacyl-tRNA tRNA dependent [6, 7]. tRNA binding to synthetase genes, post-aminoacylation re- AARS is thought to proceed through an initial charging of aa-tRNA as an alternative decod- broad specificity interaction that is followed ing mechanism and, finally, presence of by more precise recognition that involves bifunctional AARS. In contrast, in all conformational changes of both AARS and eukaryotes a full set of AARS genes has been cognate tRNA. This allows entry into the found [4–11]. The aminoacyl-tRNA synthetas- translation state of catalysis and provides a es database Y2K is available at http:// major contribution to tRNA specificity, as biobases.ibch.poznan.pl. Recent investiga- bound noncognate tRNAs normally are not tions have shown that AARS are capable of a charged [15, 16]. broad repertoire of functions that not only af- The fidelity of aminoacylation is controlled fect protein biosynthesis, but also extend to a by positive (identity) and negative regulatory number of other cellular activities (Fig. 1). elements in tRNAs and AARS which permit both recognition and productive binding of the cognate pairs as well as discrimination tRNA AMINOACYLATION against a non-productive binding of non-cog- nate pairs. The accuracy of this process is at tRNA maturation RNA-DEPENDENT cytokine-like proofreading AMINO ACID EDITING activity least 10000:1, and constitutes one of the fun- damental phenomena in protein–nucleic acid mitochondrial AARS aminoacylation of RNA splicing tRNA-like structures molecular recognition [5–9, 12–16]. Identity residues, properly located in several regions chlorophyll transcriptional biosynthesis regulation of the tRNAs, trigger specific recognition and alarmones translational charging by the cognate AARS [6, 7]. biosynthesis regulation Figure 1. The cellular activities of amino- acyl-tRNA synthetases. AARS — DIVERSITY OF The functions of AARSs are described and discussed in STRUCTURES AND FAMILY the text, except for chlorophyll biosynthesis [6], bind- CLASSIFICATION ing to DNA [76] and aminoacylation of tRNA-like struc- tures [77–79]. Although aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases catalyse the same basic reaction and share the Specific AARS are involved in translational common substrate (ATP) and cofactor (mag- fidelity, tRNA processing, RNA splicing, RNA nesium), they have long been known to differ trafficking, apoptosis and transcriptional and in their size, amino-acid sequences and sub- translational regulation [12–14]. The amino- unit structure. The quaternary structures of acylation reaction catalysed by AARS is AARS include monomers (a), homodimers achieved in two steps. First, the amino acid is and tetramers (a2, a4) and heterotetramers activated by attacking a molecule of ATP at (a2b2). The peptide size of the subunits in the a-phosphate, giving rise to a mixed anhy- Escherichia coli varies from 344 aa for TrpRS dride intermediate, aminoacyl-adenylate, and to 951 aa for ValRS [6–9]. AlaRS is an a4 inorganic pyrophosphate. In the second step, tetramer while both PheRS and GlyRS are the activated amino acid moiety is transferred a2b2 tetramers. PheRS adopts the a2b2 to the 3¢-terminal ribose of the cognate tRNA, tetrameric structure in all prokaryotic and yielding the specific aminoacyl-tRNA and eukaryotic cytoplasmic sources known. A Vol. 47 Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases 823 crystal structure of PheRS from Thermus lix from the minor groove side and catalyse at- thermophilus indicates that this tetrameric tachment of the amino acid to the 2¢-OH at the structure actually behaves as an (ab)2 struc- end of tRNA chain. On the other hand, class II ture, that is a dimer built from two enzymes have a seven-stranded b-structure heterodimers [17]. A different situation is ob- with three a-helices, that was identified for served for yeast and human mitochondrial the first time in the structure of SerRS, and PheRS, which are active in a monomeric form three sequence motifs, numbered 1, 2 and 3 [18]. They constitute a class of PheRS distinct [20, 21, 24]. Class II AARS (with one excep- from the enzymes found in prokaryotes and tion), approach the end of tRNA from the ma- the eukaryotic cytoplasm [18]. The eukaryotic jor groove, attaching the amino acid to 3¢-OH. enzymes are usually larger than their The crystallographic studies on amino- prokaryotic counterparts. This is due to the acyl-tRNA synthetases in free and complexed presence of the carboxy- and amino-terminal forms allow getting insight into the specificity extensions that are dispensable for amino- of substrate recognition and the catalysis it- acylation, but their function is still unclear self [24]. Many idiosyncratic domains are at- [19–21]. However, it has been shown that the tached to and/or inserted in the class defining N-terminal appended domain of yeast GlnRS catalytic core and are responsible for binding increases the stability as well as concentra- and recognition of cognate RNAs. tion of productive complexes between E. coli A broader evolutionary interest in the GlnRS and yeast tRNAGln. The fused domains AARSs stems from their biological function do not distort or reorient the complexes away being one of the core requirements for pro- from a productive mode but increase the “on“ gression from the RNA world to the universal rate and decrease the “off“ rate for associa- common ancestor in numerous schemes for tion of tRNA with the AARS [22, 23]. Since the origin of life [5, 25, 26]. In Methanococcus amino acids share a common core structure jannaschii genome 16 aminoacyl-tRNA and tRNAs show the same basic fold, synthetase gene homologues have been identi- aminoacyl-tRNAs can be specifically recog- fied. The genes of GlnRS, AsnRS, LysRS and nised by other components of the protein CysRS were missing. In addition, the assign- biosynthesis pathway, e.g. elongation factors. ment of an open reading frame encoding The AARS can be divided into two classes (I SerRS was based on rather low homology, and II) of 10 members each, based on the pres- while there appeared to be three reasonable ence of mutually exclusive amino-acid se- candidates to encode the two subunits of quence motifs [20, 21, 24]. This division re- PheRS. Components of the selenocysteinyl- flects structurally distinct topologies within tRNA synthesis pathway could not be identi- the active site and two different structural fied [27]. Recently it was shown that frameworks evolved independently to cata- cysteinylation in certain Archaea is per- lyse the aminoacylation reaction. The cata- formed by synthetase of unique structure — lytic domain of class I enzymes is formed by a bifunctional ProCysRS [10, 11]. five-handed parallel b-sheet (Rossman fold), It is generally assumed that an AARS of a which was already known as a nucleotide given specificity will always belong to the binding element. This group of related en- same class regardless of its biological origin, zymes was originally assigned by identifica- reflecting the ancient evolution of this enzyme tion of two signature sequences: HIGH and family. The only known exceptions to this rule KMSKS. These sequence motifs are critical el- are LysRSs, which are composed of two unre- ements in the structure of the active site for lated families, class I enzymes in certain aminoacyl-adenylate synthesis.