Related Experiment Videos
Anticodon nucleases
1Dept of Biochemistry, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv 69978, Israel. kaufmann@post.tau.ac.il
Trends in Biochemical Sciences
|February 9, 2000
Abstract:
A tRNALys-specific anticodon nuclease is kept in a latent form in a rare Escherichia coli strain, complexed with a DNA restriction enzyme. A phage T4 inhibitor of DNA restriction activates anticodon nuclease, but other T4 proteins restore tRNALys. Detection of a homologous system in Neisseria and a different anticodon nuclease in colicin E5 suggest ubiquity and diversity of such tRNA toxins. Analysis of these systems could reveal novel RNA recognition and cleavage mechanisms.