Evolutionary insights about bacterial GlxRS from whole genome analyses: is GluRS2 a chimera?

Evolution and variation in amide aminoacyl-tRNA synthesis

The amide proteogenic amino acids, asparagine and glutamine, are two of the twenty amino acids used in translation by all known life. The aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases for asparagine and glutamine, asparaginyl-tRNA synthetase and glutaminyl tRNA synthetase, evolved after the split in the last universal common ancestor of modern organisms. Before that split, life used two-step indirect pathways to synthesize asparagine and glutamine on their cognate tRNAs to form the aminoacyl-tRNA used in translation. These two-step pathways were retained throughout much of the bacterial and archaeal domains of life and eukaryotic organelles. The indirect routes use non-discriminating aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (non-discriminating aspartyl-tRNA synthetase and non-discriminating glutamyl-tRNA synthetase) to misaminoacylate the tRNA. The misaminoacylated tRNA formed is then transamidated into the amide aminoacyl-tRNA used in protein synthesis by tRNA-dependent amidotransferases (GatCAB and GatDE). The enzymes and tRNAs involved assemble into complexes known as transamidosomes to help maintain translational fidelity. These pathways have evolved to meet the varied cellular needs across a diverse set of organisms, leading to significant variation. In certain bacteria, the indirect pathways may provide a means to adapt to cellular stress by reducing the fidelity of protein synthesis. The retention of these indirect pathways versus acquisition of asparaginyl-tRNA synthetase and glutaminyl tRNA synthetase in lineages likely involves a complex interplay of the competing uses of glutamine and asparagine beyond translation, energetic costs, co-evolution between enzymes and tRNA, and involvement in stress response that await further investigation.

Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases: Structure, function, and drug discovery

Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (AARSs) are the enzymes that catalyze the aminoacylation reaction by covalently linking an amino acid to its cognate tRNA in the first step of protein translation. Beyond this classical function, these enzymes are also known to have a role in several metabolic and signaling pathways that are important for cell viability. Study of these enzymes is of great interest to the researchers due to its pivotal role in the growth and survival of an organism. Further, unfolding the interesting structural and functional aspects of these enzymes in the last few years has qualified them as a potential drug target against various diseases. Here we review the classification, function, and the conserved as well the appended structural architecture of these enzymes in detail, including its association with multi-synthetase complexes. We also considered their role in human diseases in terms of mutations and autoantibodies against AARSs. Finally, we have discussed the available inhibitors against AARSs. This review offers comprehensive information on AARSs under a single canopy that would be a good inventory for researchers working in this area.

Dispensability of zinc and the putative zinc-binding domain in bacterial glutamyl-tRNA synthetase

The putative zinc-binding domain (pZBD) in Escherichia coli glutamyl-tRNA synthetase (GluRS) is known to correctly position the tRNA acceptor arm and modulate the amino acid-binding site. However, its functional role in other bacterial species is not clear since many bacterial GluRSs lack a zinc-binding motif in the pZBD. From experimental studies on pZBD-swapped E. coli GluRS, with Thermosynechoccus elongatus GluRS, Burkholderia thailandensis GluRS and E. coli glutamyl-queuosine-tRNA^Asp synthetase (Glu-Q-RS), we show that E. coli GluRS, containing the zinc-free pZBD of B. thailandensis, is as functional as the zinc-bound wild-type E. coli GluRS, whereas the other constructs, all zinc-bound, show impaired function. A pZBD-tinkered version of E. coli GluRS that still retained Zn-binding capacity, also showed reduced activity. This suggests that zinc is not essential for the pZBD to be functional. From extensive structural and sequence analyses from whole genome database of bacterial GluRS, we further show that in addition to many bacterial GluRS lacking a zinc-binding motif, the pZBD is actually deleted in some bacteria, all containing either glutaminyl-tRNA synthetase (GlnRS) or a second copy of GluRS (GluRS2). Correlation between the absence of pZBD and the occurrence of glutamine amidotransferase CAB (GatCAB) in the genome suggests that the primordial role of the pZBD was to facilitate transamidation of misacylated Glu-tRNA^Gln via interaction with GatCAB, whereas its role in tRNA^Glu interaction may be a consequence of the presence of pZBD.

Zinc is functionally important in glutamylation of tRNA^Glu in Escherichia coli, yet, it is absent from many bacterial glutamyl-tRNA synthetases (GluRSs). We demonstrate and rationalize why zinc or the putative zinc-binding domain (pZBD) is not indispensable in all bacterial GluRSs.

Ancestral Reconstruction of a Pre-LUCA Aminoacyl-tRNA Synthetase Ancestor Supports the Late Addition of Trp to the Genetic Code

The genetic code was likely complete in its current form by the time of the last universal common ancestor (LUCA). Several scenarios have been proposed for explaining the code's pre-LUCA emergence and expansion, and the relative order of the appearance of amino acids used in translation. One co-evolutionary model of genetic code expansion proposes that at least some amino acids were added to the code by the ancient divergence of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase (aaRS) families. Of all the amino acids used within the genetic code, Trp is most frequently claimed as a relatively recent addition. We observe that, since TrpRS and TyrRS are paralogous protein families retaining significant sequence similarity, the inferred sequence composition of their ancestor can be used to evaluate this co-evolutionary model of genetic code expansion. We show that ancestral sequence reconstructions of the pre-LUCA paralog ancestor of TyrRS and TrpRS have several sites containing Tyr, yet a complete absence of sites containing Trp. This is consistent with the paralog ancestor being specific for the utilization of Tyr, with Trp being a subsequent addition to the genetic code facilitated by a process of aaRS divergence and neofunctionalization. Only after this divergence could Trp be specifically encoded and incorporated into proteins, including the TyrRS and TrpRS descendant lineages themselves. This early absence of Trp is observed under both homogeneous and non-homogeneous models of ancestral sequence reconstruction. Simulations support that this observed absence of Trp is unlikely to be due to chance or model bias. These results support that the final stages of genetic code evolution occurred well within the "protein world," and that the presence-absence of Trp within conserved sites of ancient protein domains is a likely measure of their relative antiquity, permitting the relative timing of extremely early events within protein evolution before LUCA.

Preliminary X-ray crystallographic analysis of an engineered glutamyl-tRNA synthetase from Escherichia coli

The nature of interaction between glutamyl-tRNA synthetase (GluRS) and its tRNA substrate is unique in bacteria in that many bacterial GluRS are capable of recognizing two tRNA substrates: tRNAGlu and tRNAGln. To properly understand this distinctive GluRS-tRNA interaction it is important to pursue detailed structure-function studies; however, because of the fact that tRNA-GluRS interaction in bacteria is also associated with phylum-specific idiosyncrasies, the structure-function correlation studies must also be phylum-specific. GluRS from Thermus thermophilus and Escherichia coli, which belong to evolutionarily distant phyla, are the biochemically best characterized. Of these, only the structure of T. thermophilus GluRS is available. To fully unravel the subtleties of tRNAGlu-GluRS interaction in E. coli, a model bacterium that can also be pathogenic, determination of the E. coli GluRS structure is essential. However, previous attempts have failed to crystallize E. coli GluRS. By mapping crystal contacts of a homologous GluRS onto the E. coli GluRS sequence, two surface residues were identified that might have been hindering crystallization attempts. Accordingly, these two residues were mutated and crystallization of the double mutant was attempted. Here, the design, expression, purification and crystallization of an engineered E. coli GluRS in which two surface residues were mutated to optimize crystal contacts are reported.