Identification and codon reading properties of 5-cyanomethyl uridine, a new modified nucleoside found in the anticodon wobble position of mutant haloarchaeal isoleucine tRNAs
Author(s)
Mandal, Debabrata; Koehrer, Caroline; Su, Dan; Babu, I. Ramesh; Chan, Tsz Yan Clement; Liu, Yuchen; Soll, Dieter; Blum, Paul; Kuwahara, Masayasu; Dedon, Peter C.; Rajbhandary, Uttam L.; ... Show more Show less
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Most archaea and bacteria use a modified C in the anticodon wobble position of isoleucine tRNA to base pair with A but not with G of the mRNA. This allows the tRNA to read the isoleucine codon AUA without also reading the methionine codon AUG. To understand why a modified C, and not U or modified U, is used to base pair with A, we mutated the C34 in the anticodon of Haloarcula marismortui isoleucine tRNA (tRNA2Ile) to U, expressed the mutant tRNA in Haloferax volcanii, and purified and analyzed the tRNA. Ribosome binding experiments show that although the wild-type tRNA2Ile binds exclusively to the isoleucine codon AUA, the mutant tRNA binds not only to AUA but also to AUU, another isoleucine codon, and to AUG, a methionine codon. The G34 to U mutant in the anticodon of another H. marismortui isoleucine tRNA species showed similar codon binding properties. Binding of the mutant tRNA to AUG could lead to misreading of the AUG codon and insertion of isoleucine in place of methionine. This result would explain why most archaea and bacteria do not normally use U or a modified U in the anticodon wobble position of isoleucine tRNA for reading the codon AUA. Biochemical and mass spectrometric analyses of the mutant tRNAs have led to the discovery of a new modified nucleoside, 5-cyanomethyl U in the anticodon wobble position of the mutant tRNAs. 5-Cyanomethyl U is present in total tRNAs from euryarchaea but not in crenarchaea, eubacteria, or eukaryotes.
Date issued
2013-12Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Medical Engineering & Science; Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biological Engineering; Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of BiologyJournal
RNA
Publisher
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press/RNA Society
Citation
Mandal, D., C. Kohrer, D. Su, I. R. Babu, C. T. Y. Chan, Y. Liu, D. Soll, et al. “Identification and Codon Reading Properties of 5-Cyanomethyl Uridine, a New Modified Nucleoside Found in the Anticodon Wobble Position of Mutant Haloarchaeal Isoleucine tRNAs.” RNA 20, no. 2 (December 16, 2013): 177–188.
Version: Final published version
ISSN
1355-8382