Natural reassignment of CUU and CUA sense codons to alanine in Ashbya mitochondria

作者:Ling Jiqiang; Daoud Rachid; Lajoie Marc J; Church George M; Soell Dieter; Lang B Franz*
来源:Nucleic Acids Research, 2014, 42(1): 499-508.
DOI:10.1093/nar/gkt842

摘要

The discovery of diverse codon reassignment events has demonstrated that the canonical genetic code is not universal. Studying coding reassignment at the molecular level is critical for understanding genetic code evolution, and provides clues to genetic code manipulation in synthetic biology. Here we report a novel reassignment event in the mitochondria of Ashbya (Eremothecium) gossypii, a filamentous-growing plant pathogen related to yeast (Saccharomycetaceae). Bioinformatics studies of conserved positions in mitochondrial DNA-encoded proteins suggest that CUU and CUA codons correspond to alanine in A. gossypii, instead of leucine in the standard code or threonine in yeast mitochondria. Reassignment of CUA to Ala was confirmed at the protein level by mass spectrometry. We further demonstrate that a predicted tRNA(UAG)(Ala) is transcribed and accurately processed in vivo, and is responsible for Ala reassignment. Enzymatic studies reveal that tRNA(UAG)(Ala) is efficiently recognized by A. gossypii mitochondrial alanyl-tRNA synthetase (AgAlaRS). AlaRS typically recognizes the G3:U70 base pair of tRNA(Ala); a G3A change in Ashbya tRNA(UAG)(Ala) abolishes its recognition by AgAlaRS. Conversely, an A3G mutation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae tRNA(UAG)(Thr) confers tRNA recognition by AgAlaRS. Our work highlights the dynamic feature of natural genetic codes in mitochondria, and the relative simplicity by which tRNA identity may be switched.

  • 出版日期2014-1

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