The aminoacyl-transfer RNA synthetases (aaRS) catalyse the attachment of an amino acid to its cognate transfer RNA molecule in a highly specific two-step reaction. These proteins differ widely in size and oligomeric state, and have limited sequence homology. Out of the 18 known aaRS, only 9 referred to as class I synthetases (GlnRS, TyrRS, MetRS, GluRS, ArgRS, ValRS, IleRS, LeuRS, TrpRS), display two short common consensus sequences ('HIGH' and 'KMSKS') which indicate, as observed in three crystal structures, the presence of a structural domain (the Rossman fold) that binds ATP. We report here the sequence of Escherichia coli ProRS, a dimer of relative molecular mass 127,402, which is homologous to both ThrRS and SerRS. These three latter aaRS share three new sequence motifs with AspRS, AsnRS, LysRS, HisRS and the beta subunit of PheRS. These three motifs (motifs 1, 2 and 3), in a search through the entire data bank, proved to be specific for this set of aaRS (referred to as class II). Class II may also contain AlaRS and GlyRS, because these sequences have a typical motif 3. Surprisingly, this partition of aaRS in two classes is found to be strongly correlated on the functional level with the acylation occurring either on the 2' OH (class I) or 3' OH (class II) of the ribose of the last nucleotide of tRNA.
The crystal structures of the various complexes formed by yeast aspartyl‐tRNA synthetase (AspRS) and its substrates provide snapshots of the active site corresponding to different steps of the aminoacylation reaction. Native crystals of the binary complex tRNA‐AspRS were soaked in solutions containing the two other substrates, ATP (or its analog AMPPcP) and aspartic acid. When all substrates are present in the crystal, this leads to the formation of the aspartyl‐adenylate and/or the aspartyl‐tRNA. A class II‐specific pathway for the aminoacylation reaction is proposed which explains the known functional differences between the two classes while preserving a common framework. Extended signature sequences characteristic of class II aaRS (motifs 2 and 3) constitute the basic functional unit. The ATP molecule adopts a bent conformation, stabilized by the invariant Arg531 of motif 3 and a magnesium ion coordinated to the pyrophosphate group and to two class‐invariant acidic residues. The aspartic acid substrate is positioned by a class II invariant acidic residue, Asp342, interacting with the amino group and by amino acids conserved in the aspartyl synthetase family. The amino acids in contact with the substrates have been probed by site‐directed mutagenesis for their functional implication.
The crystal structure of arginyl-tRNA synthetase (ArgRS) from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a class I aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase (aaRS), with L-arginine bound to the active site has been solved at 2.75 Å resolution and refined to a crystallographic R-factor of 19.7%. ArgRS is composed predominantly of α-helices and can be divided into five domains, including the class I-specific active site. The N-terminal domain shows striking similarity to some completely unrelated proteins and defines a module which should participate in specific tRNA recognition. The C-terminal domain, which is the putative anticodon-binding module, displays an all-α-helix fold highly similar to that of Escherichia coli methionyl-tRNA synthetase. While ArgRS requires tRNA Arg for the first step of the aminoacylation reaction, the results show that its presence is not a prerequisite for L-arginine binding. All H-bond-forming capability of L-arginine is used by the protein for the specific recognition. The guanidinium group forms two salt bridge interactions with two acidic residues, and one H-bond with a tyrosine residue; these three residues are strictly conserved in all ArgRS sequences. This tyrosine is also conserved in other class I aaRS active sites but plays several functional roles. The ArgRS structure allows the definition of a new framework for sequence alignments and subclass definition in class I aaRSs.
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