Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases database Y2K.

M Szymanski1, J Barciszewski

  • 1Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Noskowskiego 12/14, 61-704 Poznan, Poland.

Nucleic Acids Research
|December 11, 1999
PubMed
Summary

This article describes a specialized online database that collects and organizes the protein sequences of enzymes responsible for translating genetic information into functional proteins across all domains of life.

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Transfer RNA Synthesis02:36

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One of the unique features of tRNA is the presence of modified bases. In some tRNAs, modified bases account for nearly 20% of the total bases in the molecule. Altogether, these unusual bases protect the tRNA from enzymatic degradation by RNases.
Each of these chemical modifications is carried by a specific enzyme, post-transcription. All of these enzymes have unique base and site-specificity. Methylation, the most common chemical modification, is carried by at least nine different enzymes, with...
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Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases are present in both eukaryotes and bacteria. Though eukaryotes have 20 different aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases to couple to 20 amino acids, many bacteria do not have genes for all of these aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases. Despite this, they still use all 20 amino acids to synthesize their proteins. For instance, some bacteria do not have the gene encoding the enzyme that couples glutamine with its partner tRNA. In these organisms, one enzyme adds glutamic acid to all of the...