Kinetic proofreading at single molecular level: Aminoacylation of tRNA^{Ile} and the role of water as an editor

Proofreading/editing in protein synthesis is essential for accurate translation of information from the genetic code. In this article we present a theoretical investigation of efficiency of a kinetic proofreading mechanism that employs hydrolysis of the wrong substrate as the discriminatory step in enzyme catalytic reactions. We consider aminoacylation of tRNA^{Ile} which is a crucial step in protein synthesis and for which experimental results are now available. We present an augmented kinetic scheme and then employ methods of stochastic simulation algorithm to obtain time dependent concentrations of different substances involved in the reaction and their rates of formation. We obtain the rates of product formation and ATP hydrolysis for both correct and wrong substrates (isoleucine and valine in our case), in single molecular enzyme as well as ensemble enzyme kinetics. The present theoretical scheme correctly reproduces (i) the amplitude of the discrimination factor in the overall rates between isoleucine and valine which is obtained as (1.8 \times 10^2).(4.33 \times 10^2) = 7.8 \times 10^4, (ii) the rates of ATP hydrolysis for both Ile and Val at different substrate concentrations in the aminoacylation of tRNA^{Ile}. The present study shows a non-michaelis type dependence of rate of reaction on tRNA^{Ile} concentration in case of valine. The editing in steady state is found to be independent of amino acid concentration. Interestingly, the computed ATP hydrolysis rate for valine at high substrate concentration is same as the rate of formation of Ile-tRNA^{Ile} whereas at intermediate substrate concentration the ATP hydrolysis rate is relatively low

Naturally Occurring Isoleucyl-tRNA Synthetase without tRNA-dependent Pre-transfer Editing

Isoleucyl-tRNA synthetase (IleRS) is unusual among aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases in having a tRNA-dependent pre-transfer editing activity. Alongside the typical bacterial IleRS (such as Escherichia coli IleRS), some bacteria also have the enzymes (eukaryote-like) that cluster with eukaryotic IleRSs and exhibit low sensitivity to the antibiotic mupirocin. Our phylogenetic analysis suggests that the ileS1 and ileS2 genes of contemporary bacteria are the descendants of genes that might have arisen by an ancient duplication event before the separation of bacteria and archaea. We present the analysis of evolutionary constraints of the synthetic and editing reactions in eukaryotic/eukaryote-like IleRSs, which share a common origin but diverged through adaptation to different cell environments. The enzyme from the yeast cytosol exhibits tRNA-dependent pre-transfer editing analogous to E. coli IleRS. This argues for the presence of this proofreading in the common ancestor of both IleRS types and an ancient origin of the synthetic site-based quality control step. Yet surprisingly, the eukaryote-like enzyme from Streptomyces griseus IleRS lacks this capacity; at the same time, its synthetic site displays the 10(3)-fold drop in sensitivity to antibiotic mupirocin relative to the yeast enzyme. The discovery that pre-transfer editing is optional in IleRSs lends support to the notion that the conserved post-transfer editing domain is the main checkpoint in these enzymes. We substantiated this by showing that under error-prone conditions S. griseus IleRS is able to rescue the growth of an E. coli lacking functional IleRS, providing the first evidence that tRNA-dependent pre-transfer editing in IleRS is not essential for cell viability

Fine-Tuning of Alanyl-tRNA Synthetase Quality Control Alleviates Global Dysregulation of the Proteome

One integral step in the transition from a nucleic acid encoded-genome to functional proteins is the aminoacylation of tRNA molecules. To perform this activity, aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (aaRSs) activate free amino acids in the cell forming an aminoacyl-adenylate before transferring the amino acid on to its cognate tRNA. These newly formed aminoacyl-tRNA (aa-tRNA) can then be used by the ribosome during mRNA decoding. In Escherichia coli, there are twenty aaRSs encoded in the genome, each of which corresponds to one of the twenty proteinogenic amino acids used in translation. Given the shared chemicophysical properties of many amino acids, aaRSs have evolved mechanisms to prevent erroneous aa-tRNA formation with non-cognate amino acid substrates. Of particular interest is the post-transfer proofreading activity of alanyl-tRNA synthetase (AlaRS) which prevents the accumulation of Ser-tRNAAla and Gly-tRNAAla in the cell. We have previously shown that defects in AlaRS proofreading of Ser-tRNAAla lead to global dysregulation of the E. coli proteome, subsequently causing defects in growth, motility, and antibiotic sensitivity. Here we report second-site AlaRS suppressor mutations that alleviate the aforementioned phenotypes, revealing previously uncharacterized residues within the AlaRS proofreading domain that function in quality control

The Ribosome Discriminates the Structure of the Amino Acid at its Peptidyl-Transferase Center

Contemporary interpretations of Crick's original Adaptor Hypothesis view both the amino acid and the tRNA body as passive participants during aminoacyl-tRNA (aa-tRNA) selection by the ribosome. Recent experimental evidence investigating tRNA mutants that miscode due to mutations that lie outside the anticodon as well as data from the unnatural amino acid mutagenesis field that shows that different unnatural amino acids, when esterified to the same suppressor tRNA, produce different amounts of protein, suggest that aa-tRNA selection is considerably more complex than originally envisioned in Crick's Adaptor Hypothesis and that aa-tRNA selection may extend to the amino acid itself. Here, using unnatural amino acids as substrates on natural, fully modified tRNAs and a highly purified in vitro translation system, we investigate the substrate specificity of the ribosome with respect to the amino acid

Efficiently Activated Serine Analogue is Not Transferred to Yeast tRNASer

Covalent attachment of cognate amino acid to the cognate tRNA is a prerequisite for the faithful synthesis of proteins in the cell. Aminoacylation of tRNA, catalyzed by aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (aaRSs), proceeds by a two-step reaction whereby amino acid is first activated and then transferred to the 3\u27-ribose of tRNA. Serine hydroxamate (SerHX) is an interesting analogue of serine as it exhibits antimicrobial activity due to its inhibition of serylation in yeast and Escherichia coli. SerHX also mimics a noncognate substrate of yeast seryl-tRNA synthetase (ScSerRS) since it is efficiently activated and edited by this enzyme. However, whether this analogue is also transferred to tRNA during the second step of aminoacylation was not previously known. Here we show, for the first time, that aminoacylation of yeast tRNA with SerHX does not occur at a measurable rate, suggesting that the transfer is less tolerable toward SerHX than the activation step

Trans-oligomerization of duplicated aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases maintains genetic code fidelity under stress

Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (aaRSs) play a key role in deciphering the genetic message by producing charged tRNAs and are equipped with proofreading mechanisms to ensure correct pairing of tRNAs with their cognate amino acid. Duplicated aaRSs are very frequent in Nature, with 25,913 cases observed in 26,837 genomes. The oligomeric nature of many aaRSs raises the question of how the functioning and oligomerization of duplicated enzymes is organized. We characterized this issue in a model prokaryotic organism that expresses two different threonyl-tRNA synthetases, responsible for Thr-tRNAThr synthesis: one accurate and constitutively expressed (T1) and another (T2) with impaired proofreading activity that also generates mischarged Ser-tRNAThr. Low zinc promotes dissociation of dimeric T1 into monomers deprived of aminoacylation activity and simultaneous induction of T2, which is active for aminoacylation under low zinc. T2 either forms homodimers or heterodimerizes with T1 subunits that provide essential proofreading activity in trans. These findings evidence that in organisms with duplicated genes, cells can orchestrate the assemblage of aaRSs oligomers that meet the necessities of the cell in each situation. We propose that controlled oligomerization of duplicated aaRSs is an adaptive mechanism that can potentially be expanded to the plethora of organisms with duplicated oligomeric aaRSs.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad BFU2010–19544, BFU2013–44686-

The mechanistic and evolutionary aspects of the 2'- and 3'-OH paradigm in biosynthetic machinery.

RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are.BACKGROUND: The translation machinery underlies a multitude of biological processes within the cell. The design and implementation of the modern translation apparatus on even the simplest course of action is extremely complex, and involves different RNA and protein factors. According to the "RNA world" idea, the critical link in the translation machinery may be assigned to an adaptor tRNA molecule. Its exceptional functional and structural characteristics are of primary importance in understanding the evolutionary relationships among all these macromolecular components. PRESENTATION OF THE HYPOTHESIS: The 2'-3' hydroxyls of the tRNA A76 constitute chemical groups of critical functional importance, as they are implicated in almost all phases of protein biosynthesis. They contribute to: a) each step of the tRNA aminoacylation reaction catalyzed by aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (aaRSs); b) the isomerase activity of EF-Tu, involving a mixture of the 2'(3')- aminoacyl tRNA isomers as substrates, thereby producing the required combination of amino acid and tRNA; and c) peptide bond formation at the peptidyl transferase center (PTC) of the ribosome. We hypothesize that specific functions assigned to the 2'-3' hydroxyls during peptide bond formation co-evolved, together with two modes of attack on the aminoacyl-adenylate carbonyl typical for two classes of aaRSs, and alongside the isomerase activity of EF-Tu. Protein components of the translational apparatus are universally recognized as being of ancient origin, possibly replacing RNA-based enzymes that may have existed before the last universal common ancestor (LUCA). We believe that a remnant of these processes is still imprinted on the organization of modern-day translation. TESTING AND IMPLICATIONS OF THE HYPOTHESIS: Earlier publications indicate that it is possible to select ribozymes capable of attaching the aa-AMP moiety to RNA molecules. The scenario described herein would gain general acceptance, if a ribozyme able to activate the amino acid and transfer it onto the terminal ribose of the tRNA, would be found in any life form, or generated in vitro. Interestingly, recent studies have demonstrated the plausibility of using metals, likely abandoned under primordial conditions, as biomimetic catalysts of the aminoacylation reaction

Aminoacyl-tRNA Synthetases

The aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases are an essential and universally distributed family of enzymes that plays a critical role in protein synthesis, pairing tRNAs with their cognate amino acids for decoding mRNAs according to the genetic code. Synthetases help to ensure accurate translation of the genetic code by using both highly accurate cognate substrate recognition and stringent proofreading of noncognate products. While alterations in the quality control mechanisms of synthetases are generally detrimental to cellular viability, recent studies suggest that in some instances such changes facilitate adaption to stress conditions. Beyond their central role in translation, synthetases are also emerging as key players in an increasing number of other cellular processes, with far-reaching consequences in health and disease. The biochemical versatility of the synthetases has also proven pivotal in efforts to expand the genetic code, further emphasizing the wide-ranging roles of the aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase family in synthetic and natural biology

Loss of Editing Activity During the Evolution of Mitochondrial Phenylalanyl-tRNA Synthetase

Accurate selection of amino acids is essential for faithful translation of the genetic code. Errors during amino acid selection are usually corrected by the editing activity of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases such as phenylalanyl-tRNA synthetases (PheRS), which edit misactivated tyrosine. Comparison of cytosolic and mitochondrial PheRS from the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae suggested that the organellar protein might lack the editing activity. Yeast cytosolic PheRS was found to contain an editing site, which upon disruption abolished both cis and trans editing of Tyr-tRNAPhe. Wild-type mitochondrial PheRS lacked cis and trans editing and could synthesize Tyr-tRNAPhe, an activity enhanced in active site variants with improved tyrosine recognition. Possible trans editing was investigated in isolated mitochondrial extracts, but no such activity was detected. These data indicate that the mitochondrial protein synthesis machinery lacks the tyrosine proofreading activity characteristic of cytosolic translation. This difference between the mitochondria and the cytosol suggests that either organellar protein synthesis quality control is focused on another step or that translation in this compartment is inherently less accurate than in the cytosol

Nucleic Acids Res

The leucine-specific domain (LSD) is a compact well-ordered module that participates in positioning of the conserved KMSKS catalytic loop in most leucyl-tRNA synthetases (LeuRSs). However, the LeuRS from Mycoplasma mobile (MmLeuRS) has a tetrapeptide GKDG instead of the LSD. Here, we show that the tetrapeptide GKDG can confer tRNA charging and post-transfer editing activity when transplanted into an inactive Escherichia coli LeuRS (EcLeuRS) that has had its LSD deleted. Reciprocally, the LSD, together with the CP1-editing domain of EcLeuRS, can cooperate when inserted into the scaffold of the minimal MmLeuRS, and this generates an enzyme nearly as active as EcLeuRS. Further, we show that LSD participates in tRNALeu recognition and favours the binding of tRNAs harbouring a large loop in the variable arm. Additional analysis established that the Lys598 in the LSD is the critical residue for tRNA binding. Conversion of Lys598 to Ala simultaneously reduces the tRNA-binding strength and aminoacylation and editing capacities, indicating that these factors are subtly connected and controlled at the level of the LSD. The present work provides a novel framework of co-evolution between LeuRS and its cognate tRNA through LSD