TY - JOUR
T1 - Convergent evolution of AUA decoding in bacteria and archaea
AU - Suzuki, Tsutomu
AU - Numata, Tomoyuki
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Priority Areas from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports, and Culture of Japan (to T.S.), and by a Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (to T.N.).
PY - 2014/12/1
Y1 - 2014/12/1
N2 - Deciphering AUA codons is a difficult task for organisms, because AUA and AUG specify isoleucine (Ile) and methionine (Met), separately. Each of the other purine-ending sense codon sets (NNR) specifies a single amino acid in the universal genetic code. In bacteria and archaea, the cytidine derivatives, 2-lysylcytidine (L or lysidine) and 2-agmatinylcytidine (agm2C or agmatidine), respectively, are found at the first letter of the anticodon of tRNAIle responsible for AUA codons. These modifications prevent base pairing with G of the third letter of AUG codon, and enable tRNAIle to decipher AUA codon specifically. In addition, these modifications confer a charging ability of tRNAIle with Ile. Despite their similar chemical structures, L and agm2C are synthesized by distinctive mechanisms and catalyzed by different classes of enzymes, implying that the analogous decoding systems for AUA codons were established by convergent evolution after the phylogenic split between bacteria and archaea-eukaryotes lineages following divergence from the last universal common ancestor (LUCA).
AB - Deciphering AUA codons is a difficult task for organisms, because AUA and AUG specify isoleucine (Ile) and methionine (Met), separately. Each of the other purine-ending sense codon sets (NNR) specifies a single amino acid in the universal genetic code. In bacteria and archaea, the cytidine derivatives, 2-lysylcytidine (L or lysidine) and 2-agmatinylcytidine (agm2C or agmatidine), respectively, are found at the first letter of the anticodon of tRNAIle responsible for AUA codons. These modifications prevent base pairing with G of the third letter of AUG codon, and enable tRNAIle to decipher AUA codon specifically. In addition, these modifications confer a charging ability of tRNAIle with Ile. Despite their similar chemical structures, L and agm2C are synthesized by distinctive mechanisms and catalyzed by different classes of enzymes, implying that the analogous decoding systems for AUA codons were established by convergent evolution after the phylogenic split between bacteria and archaea-eukaryotes lineages following divergence from the last universal common ancestor (LUCA).
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U2 - 10.4161/15476286.2014.992281
DO - 10.4161/15476286.2014.992281
M3 - Review article
C2 - 25629511
AN - SCOPUS:84924957061
VL - 11
SP - 1586
EP - 1596
JO - RNA Biology
JF - RNA Biology
SN - 1547-6286
IS - 12
ER -