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A primordial tRNA modification required for the evolution of life?

Björk, Glenn R ; Jacobsson, K ; Nilsson, K ; Johansson, M J O LU ; Byström, A S and Persson, O P (2001) In EMBO Journal 20(1-2). p.9-231
Abstract

The evolution of reading frame maintenance must have been an early event, and presumably preceded the emergence of the three domains Archaea, Bacteria and Eukarya. Features evolved early in reading frame maintenance may still exist in present-day organisms. We show that one such feature may be the modified nucleoside 1-methylguanosine (m(1)G37), which prevents frameshifting and is present adjacent to and 3' of the anticodon (position 37) in the same subset of tRNAs from all organisms, including that with the smallest sequenced genome (Mycoplasma genitalium), and organelles. We have identified the genes encoding the enzyme tRNA(m(1)G37)methyltransferase from all three domains. We also show that they are orthologues, and suggest that they... (More)

The evolution of reading frame maintenance must have been an early event, and presumably preceded the emergence of the three domains Archaea, Bacteria and Eukarya. Features evolved early in reading frame maintenance may still exist in present-day organisms. We show that one such feature may be the modified nucleoside 1-methylguanosine (m(1)G37), which prevents frameshifting and is present adjacent to and 3' of the anticodon (position 37) in the same subset of tRNAs from all organisms, including that with the smallest sequenced genome (Mycoplasma genitalium), and organelles. We have identified the genes encoding the enzyme tRNA(m(1)G37)methyltransferase from all three domains. We also show that they are orthologues, and suggest that they originated from a primordial gene. Lack of m(1)G37 severely impairs the growth of a bacterium and a eukaryote to a similar degree. Yeast tRNA(m(1)G37)methyltransferase also synthesizes 1-methylinosine and participates in the formation of the Y-base (yW). Our results suggest that m(1)G37 existed in tRNA before the divergence of the three domains, and that a tRNA(m(1)G37)methyltrans ferase is part of the minimal set of gene products required for life.

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publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Amino Acid Sequence, Animals, Archaea/genetics, Bacteria/genetics, Biological Evolution, Genome, Bacterial, Humans, Molecular Sequence Data, Mycoplasma/genetics, RNA, Bacterial/genetics, RNA, Transfer/genetics, Reading Frames, Salmonella typhimurium/genetics, Sequence Alignment, Sequence Homology, Amino Acid, tRNA Methyltransferases/chemistry
in
EMBO Journal
volume
20
issue
1-2
pages
9 pages
publisher
Oxford University Press
external identifiers
  • scopus:0035863196
  • pmid:11226173
ISSN
0261-4189
DOI
10.1093/emboj/20.1.231
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
aa04a3e7-93ae-4826-9fcf-36d7e5461f0f
date added to LUP
2024-03-06 12:02:27
date last changed
2024-04-05 00:08:57
@article{aa04a3e7-93ae-4826-9fcf-36d7e5461f0f,
  abstract     = {{<p>The evolution of reading frame maintenance must have been an early event, and presumably preceded the emergence of the three domains Archaea, Bacteria and Eukarya. Features evolved early in reading frame maintenance may still exist in present-day organisms. We show that one such feature may be the modified nucleoside 1-methylguanosine (m(1)G37), which prevents frameshifting and is present adjacent to and 3' of the anticodon (position 37) in the same subset of tRNAs from all organisms, including that with the smallest sequenced genome (Mycoplasma genitalium), and organelles. We have identified the genes encoding the enzyme tRNA(m(1)G37)methyltransferase from all three domains. We also show that they are orthologues, and suggest that they originated from a primordial gene. Lack of m(1)G37 severely impairs the growth of a bacterium and a eukaryote to a similar degree. Yeast tRNA(m(1)G37)methyltransferase also synthesizes 1-methylinosine and participates in the formation of the Y-base (yW). Our results suggest that m(1)G37 existed in tRNA before the divergence of the three domains, and that a tRNA(m(1)G37)methyltrans ferase is part of the minimal set of gene products required for life.</p>}},
  author       = {{Björk, Glenn R and Jacobsson, K and Nilsson, K and Johansson, M J O and Byström, A S and Persson, O P}},
  issn         = {{0261-4189}},
  keywords     = {{Amino Acid Sequence; Animals; Archaea/genetics; Bacteria/genetics; Biological Evolution; Genome, Bacterial; Humans; Molecular Sequence Data; Mycoplasma/genetics; RNA, Bacterial/genetics; RNA, Transfer/genetics; Reading Frames; Salmonella typhimurium/genetics; Sequence Alignment; Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; tRNA Methyltransferases/chemistry}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{01}},
  number       = {{1-2}},
  pages        = {{9--231}},
  publisher    = {{Oxford University Press}},
  series       = {{EMBO Journal}},
  title        = {{A primordial tRNA modification required for the evolution of life?}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/emboj/20.1.231}},
  doi          = {{10.1093/emboj/20.1.231}},
  volume       = {{20}},
  year         = {{2001}},
}