摘要

Biallelic missense mutations in MARS are responsible for rare but severe cases of pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (PAP) prevalent on the island of La Reunion. MARS encodes cytosolic methionyl-tRNA synthetase (MetRS), an essential translation factor. The multisystemic effects observed in patients with this form of PAP are consistent with a loss-of-function defect in an ubiquitously expressed enzyme. The pathophysiological mechanisms involved in MARS-related PAP are currently unknown. In this work, we analyzed the effect of the PAP-related mutations in MARS on the thermal stability and on the catalytic parameters of the MetRS mutants, relative to wild-type. The effect of these mutations on the structural integrity of the enzyme as a member of the cytosolic multisynthetase complex was also investigated. Our results establish that the PAP-related substitutions in MetRS impact the tRNA(Met)-aminoacylation reaction especially at the level of methionine recognition, and suggest a direct link between the loss of activity of the enzyme and the pathological disorders in PAP.

  • 出版日期2018-7
  • 单位中国地震局