Enzymatic basis for cytidine to uridine editing on archaeal tRNAs

• Antragstellerin: Dr. Ilka Heinemann
• Fachliche Zuordnung: Stoffwechselphysiologie, Biochemie und Genetik der Mikroorganismen ; Parasitologie und Biologie der Erreger tropischer Infektionskrankheiten
• Förderung: Förderung von 2008 bis 2011
• Projektkennung: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Projektnummer 86156855

• Erstellungsjahr: 2012

Zusammenfassung der Projektergebnisse

In summary, the following aims have been reached during my appointment at Yale. 1. I provided the first identification and characterization of homologs of tRNAHis guanylyltransferase (Thg1) from both bacteria and archaea. Prior to my work on this enzyme, Thg1 had only been identified in eukaryotes. Prokaryotic variants differ from the eukaryotic variants in their substrate specificity and might be useful in further protein engineering attempts to create a true reverse polymerase. 2. Characterization of Pyrrolysine as a regular amino acid in Thg1 and analysis of the Pyl-protome in both archaea and bacteria. This work broadened the view of Pyrrolysine as a regular amino acid and corrected the view of Pyl incorporation from site directed genetic mRNA recoding to undirected Stop codon suppression. 3. Creation of a genetically modified Escherichia coli strain to enable efficient UAG recoding to phosphoserine. By eliminating the detrimental competition between suppression and chain termination via deletion of release factor 1, we were able to create a highly useful tool, applicable in the production of proteins encoding unnatural amino acids such as phophoserine.

Projektbezogene Publikationen (Auswahl)

• (2009). The appearance of pyrrolysine in tRNAHis guanylyltransferase by neutral evolution. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 106(50):21103-8
  Heinemann, I.U., O'Donoghue, P., Madinger, C., Benner, J., Randau, L., Noren, C.J., and Söll, D.
  
• (2010). 3'-5' tRNAHis guanylyltransferase in bacteria. FEBS Lett. 584(16):3567-72
  Heinemann, I.U., Randau, L., Tomko Jr, J.R., and Söll, D.
  
• (2010). Transfer RNA processing in archaea: unusual pathways and enzymes. FEBS Lett. 584(2):303-9
  Heinemann, I.U., Söll, D. and Randau, L.
  
• (2011). Alanyl-phosphatidylglycerol synthase: mechanism of substrate recognition during tRNA-dependent lipid modification in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Mol Microbiol. 80(4):935-50
  Hebecker, S., Arendt, W., Heinemann, I.U., Tiefenau, J.H., Nimtz, M., Rohde, M., Söll, D. and Moser, J.
  
• (2012). Enhanced phosphoserine insertion during Escherichia coli protein synthesis via partial UAG codon reassignment and release factor 1 deletion. FEBS Lett. [Epub ahead of print]
  Heinemann, Ilka U.; Rovner, Alexis J.; Aerni, Hans R.; Rogulina, Svetlana; Cheng, Laura; Olds, William; Fischer, Jonathan T.; Söll, Dieter; Isaacs, Farren J. & Rinehart, Jesse
  
• (2012). Near-cognate suppression of amber, opal and quadruplet codons competes with aminoacyl-tRNAPyl for genetic code expansion. FEBS Lett. [Epub ahead of print]
  O'Donoghue, Patrick; Prat, Laure; Heinemann, Ilka U.; Ling, Jiqiang; Odoi, Keturah; Liu, Wenshe R. & Söll, Dieter
  
• (2012). tRNAHis guanylyltransferase establishes tRNAHis identity. Nucleic Acids Res. 40: 333-344
  Heinemann, I.U., Nakamura, A., O’Donoghue, P., Eiler, D. and Söll, D.