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Updated: May 15, 2026

Residue-specific Incorporation of Noncanonical Amino Acids into Model Proteins Using an Escherichia coli Cell-free Transcription-translation System
Published on: August 1, 2016
Anticodon G recognition by tRNA synthetases mimics the tRNA core
Liron Klipcan1, Mark Safro, Paul Schimmel
1Department of Molecular Biology and The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 N. Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
Abstract:
Ancient mechanisms for nucleotide base recognition in the RNA world are candidates for mimicking by early proteins like tRNA synthetases. In the core of the tRNA, conserved G22 interacts with two internal bases in a complex further stabilized by stacking interactions. This particular tRNA format for G recognition is shown here to be adapted by nine different and even nonhomologous anticodon binding domains (ABDs) of tRNA synthetases, in which amino acid side chains mimic all of the tRNA G22 base interactions. We offer the possibility that mimicking this RNA-based mechanism for guanine recognition is perhaps one of the selective pressures for choosing amino acids for the genetic code.
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