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Science 7 November 1997:
Vol. 278. no. 5340, pp. 1119 - 1122
DOI: 10.1126/science.278.5340.1119
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Reports

A Euryarchaeal Lysyl-tRNA Synthetase: Resemblance to Class I Synthetases

Michael Ibba, Susan Morgan, Alan W. Curnow, David R. Pridmore, Ute C. Vothknecht, Warren Gardner, Winston Lin, Carl R. Woese, Dieter Söll *

The sequencing of euryarchaeal genomes has suggested that the essential protein lysyl-transfer RNA (tRNA) synthetase (LysRS) is absent from such organisms. However, a single 62-kilodalton protein with canonical LysRS activity was purified from Methanococcus maripaludis, and the gene that encodes this protein was cloned. The predicted amino acid sequence of M. maripaludis LysRS is similar to open reading frames of unassigned function in both Methanobacterium thermoautotrophicum and Methanococcus jannaschii but is unrelated to canonical LysRS proteins reported in eubacteria, eukaryotes, and the crenarchaeote Sulfolobus solfataricus. The presence of amino acid motifs characteristic of the Rossmann dinucleotide-binding domain identifies M. maripaludis LysRS as a class I aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase, in contrast to the known examples of this enzyme, which are class II synthetases. These data question the concept that the classification of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases does not vary throughout living systems.

M. Ibba, A. W. Curnow, U. C. Vothknecht, Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University, Post Office Box 208114, 266 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, CT 06520-8114, USA.
S. Morgan, Department of Biology, Hamilton College, Clinton, NY 13323, USA.
D. R. Pridmore, Nestlé Research Center, Post Office Box 44, Vers-chez-les-Blanc, CH-1000 Lausanne, Switzerland.
W. Gardner and W. Lin, Department of Microbiology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602-2605, USA.
C. R. Woese, Department of Microbiology, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
D. Söll, Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University, Post Office Box 208114, 266 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, CT 06520-8114, USA, and Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: soll{at}trna.chem.yale.edu

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