Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Keiler KC
PROVIDER: S-EPMC16621 | biostudies-literature | 2000 Jul
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Keiler K C KC Shapiro L L Williams K P KP
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20000701 14
A general mechanism in bacteria to rescue stalled ribosomes and to clear the cell of incomplete polypeptides involves an RNA species, tmRNA (SsrA), which functions as both a tRNA and an mRNA. This RNA encodes a peptide tag that is incorporated at the end of the aberrant polypeptide and targets it for proteolysis. We have identified a circularly permuted version of the tmRNA gene in alpha-proteobacteria as well as in a lineage of cyanobacteria. The genes in these two groups seem to have arisen fr ...[more]