TY - JOUR
T1 - A unique serine-specific elongation factor tu found in nematode mitochondria
AU - Ohtsuki, Takashi
AU - Sato, Aya
AU - Watanabe, Yoh Ichi
AU - Watanabe, Kimitsuna
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank A. Coulson (Sanger Centre, UK) for the cDNA clone, K. Kita (University of Tokyo) for A. suum and T. Hanada for E. coli AlaRS. Supported by Grants-in-Aid from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture, Japan (to K.W.) and Grant-in-Aid for Encouragement of Young Scientists (to T.O.).
PY - 2002/9
Y1 - 2002/9
N2 - The translation elongation factor Tu (EF-Tu) delivers aminoacyl-tRNAs to ribosomes by recognizing the tRNA acceptor and T stems. However, the unusual truncation observed in some animal mitochondrial tRNAs seems to prevent recognition by a canonical EF-Tu. For instance, nematode mitochondria contain tRNAs lacking a T or D arm. We recently found an atypical EF-Tu (EF-Tu1) specific for nematode mitochondrial tRNAs that lack the T arm. We have now discovered a second factor, EF-Tu2, which binds only to tRNAs that lack a D arm. EF-Tu2 seems unique in its amino acid specificity because it recognizes the aminoacyl moiety of seryl-tRNAs and the tRNA structure itself. Such EF-Tu evolution might explain tRNA structural divergence in animal mitochondria.
AB - The translation elongation factor Tu (EF-Tu) delivers aminoacyl-tRNAs to ribosomes by recognizing the tRNA acceptor and T stems. However, the unusual truncation observed in some animal mitochondrial tRNAs seems to prevent recognition by a canonical EF-Tu. For instance, nematode mitochondria contain tRNAs lacking a T or D arm. We recently found an atypical EF-Tu (EF-Tu1) specific for nematode mitochondrial tRNAs that lack the T arm. We have now discovered a second factor, EF-Tu2, which binds only to tRNAs that lack a D arm. EF-Tu2 seems unique in its amino acid specificity because it recognizes the aminoacyl moiety of seryl-tRNAs and the tRNA structure itself. Such EF-Tu evolution might explain tRNA structural divergence in animal mitochondria.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0036725278&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=0036725278&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/nsb826
DO - 10.1038/nsb826
M3 - Article
C2 - 12145639
AN - SCOPUS:0036725278
SN - 1545-9993
VL - 9
SP - 669
EP - 673
JO - Nature Structural Biology
JF - Nature Structural Biology
IS - 9
ER -