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Science 13 March 1998:
Vol. 279. no. 5357, pp. 1665 - 1670
DOI: 10.1126/science.279.5357.1665
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Research Articles

Evolution of a Transfer RNA Gene Through a Point Mutation in the Anticodon

Margaret E. Saks, *dagger Jeffrey R. Sampson, ddagger John Abelson

The transfer RNA (tRNA) multigene family comprises 20 amino acid-accepting groups, many of which contain isoacceptors. The addition of isoacceptors to the tRNA repertoire was critical to establishing the genetic code, yet the origin of isoacceptors remains largely unexplored. A model of tRNA evolution, termed "tRNA gene recruitment," was formulated. It proposes that a tRNA gene can be recruited from one isoaccepting group to another by a point mutation that concurrently changes tRNA amino acid identity and messenger RNA coupling capacity. A test of the model showed that an Escherichia coli strain, in which the essential tRNAUGUThr gene was inactivated, was rendered viable when a tRNAArg with a point mutation that changed its anticodon from UCU to UGU (threonine) was expressed. Insertion of threonine at threonine codons by the "recruited" tRNAArg was corroborated by in vitro aminoacylation assays showing that its specificity had been changed from arginine to threonine. Therefore, the recruitment model may account for the evolution of some tRNA genes.

Division of Biology 147-75, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: peggy{at}seqaxp.bio.caltech.edu

dagger    Present address: Department of Biology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA.

ddagger    Present address: Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, 3500 Deer Creek Road, Mail Stop 25U-5, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA.

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