Stoichiometry and composition of an aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase complex from rat liver

The particulate aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases of rat liver were copurified about 1000-fold with more than 20% yields for individual synthetase activities. Measurements of aminoacylation activities showed that lysyl-, arginyl-, leucyl-, isoleucyl-, and methionyl-tRNA synthetases in the purified complex cosedimented at 18 S. The molecular weight of the synthetase complex is about one million, as estimated by gel filtration. The stoichiometry of the synthetase in the complex was determined by active site titration with aminoacyl adenylates. Results indicate that the 18S synthetase complex contains one subunit of methionyl-tRNA synthetase and two subunits of lysyl-tRNA synthetase. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate showed that the 18S synthetase complex contains eight major protein bands. Proteins with subunit molecular weights of 104,000, 92,000, 69,000, and 67,000 are present in molar ratios of 1:1:2:2, while proteins with subunit molecular weights of amounts. These results suggest that the particulate aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases exist as a heterotypic multienzyme complex with defined structure.