The human EPRS locus (formerly the QARS locus): a gene encoding a class I and a class II aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase

Glutamyl-tRNA synthetase and prolyl-tRNA synthetase belong to different classes of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases that are thought to have evolved along independent evolutionary pathways. However, both enzymes are on one polypeptide chain encoded by a single human gene, the EPRS locus, which is transcribed as one long mRNA. We report the structure of the human EPRS gene, which consists of 29 exons spread over at least 90 kb of genomic DNA. The exons, encoding the glutamyl-specific and the prolyl-specific parts of the enzyme, are each clustered in 10-kb sections located at opposite ends of the gene. These two exon clusters are separated by a long intervening DNA section with a number of exons, encoding functions that may be involved in the organization of the mammalian multienzyme synthetase complex. The upstream gene region shows structural features of a regulated gene, and preliminary experiments suggest that the gene is expressed at specific times in growth-stimulated cultured cells. We have localized the gene to the distal long arm of human chromosome 1 and to a corresponding site in mouse chromosome 1.