NORMAL GENOMIC

• Ingrosso D, Fowler AV, Bleibaum J, Clarke S
• Sequence of the D-aspartyl/L-isoaspartyl protein methyltransferase from human erythrocytes. Common sequence motifs for protein, DNA, RNA, and small molecule S-adenosylmethionine-dependent methyltransferases.
• J Biol Chem. 1989; 264: 20131-9
• Display abstract

• A widely distributed protein methyltransferase catalyzes the transfer of a methyl group from S-adenosyl-methionine to the free carboxyl groups of D-aspartyl and/or L-isoaspartyl derivatives of L-aspartyl and L-asparaginyl residues. This enzyme has been postulated to function in the repair or the catabolism of age-damaged proteins. We present here the complete amino acid sequence of the more basic isozyme I of this enzyme from human erythrocytes. The sequence was determined by Edman degradation and mass spectral analysis of overlapping trypsin, Staphylococcus aureus V8 protease, Pseudomonas fragi endoproteinase Asp-N, cyanogen bromide, and hydroxylamine-generated fragments. The NH2-terminus is modified by acetylation and the protein contains 226 amino acids for a calculated molecular weight of 24,575. This value is in good agreement with the molecular weight determined for the purified protein by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in the presence of dodecyl sulfate and by gel filtration chromatography under nondenaturing conditions. The identification of 2 different amino acid residues at both positions 22 and 119 may indicate the presence of allelic variants or of two or more closely related structural genes. Finally, comparison of this sequence with those of methyltransferases for RNA, DNA, and small molecules, as well as other S-adenosylmethionine-utilizing enzymes, shows that many of these proteins share elements of three regions of sequence similarity and may be structurally or evolutionarily related.

• Sibler AP, Dirheimer G, Martin RP
• Codon reading patterns in Saccharomyces cerevisiae mitochondria based on sequences of mitochondrial tRNAs.
• FEBS Lett. 1986; 194: 131-8
• Display abstract

• The sequences of Saccharomyces cerevisiae mitochondrial tRNA Arg1, tRNA Arg2, tRNA Gly, tRNA Lys2, tRNA Leu amd tRNA Pro are reported. Special structural features were found in tRNA Pro, which has A8, C21, A48 instead of the constant residues U8, A21 and pyrimidine 48, and in tRNA Lys2, which has a U excluded from base-paring and bulging out from the TpsiC stem. The tRNA Arg1, tRBA Lys2 and tRNA Leu, which belong to two-codon families ending in a purine, have a modified uridine in the wobble position, which prevents misreading of C and U. It is likely to be 5-carboxymethylaminomethyluridine. tRNA Gly and tRNA Pro have an unmodified uridine in the wobble position allowing the reading of all four codons of a four-codon family. However, tRNA Arg2, which is a minor species and belongs to the CGN four-codon family, has an unmodified A in the wobble position. This unusual feature raises the problem of the mechanism by which the codons CGA, CGG and CGC are recognized.