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Non-canonical roles of tRNAs and tRNA mimics in bacterial cell biology.

ABSTRACT: Transfer RNAs (tRNAs) are the macromolecules that transfer activated amino acids from aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases to the ribosome, where they are used for the mRNA guided synthesis of proteins. Transfer RNAs are ancient molecules, perhaps even predating the existence of the translation machinery. Albeit old, these molecules are tremendously conserved, a characteristic that is well illustrated by the fact that some bacterial tRNAs are efficient and specific substrates of eukaryotic aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases and ribosomes. Considering their ancient origin and high structural conservation, it is not surprising that tRNAs have been hijacked during evolution for functions outside of translation. These roles beyond translation include synthetic, regulatory and information functions within the cell. Here we provide an overview of the non-canonical roles of tRNAs and their mimics in bacteria, and discuss some of the common themes that arise when comparing these different functions.

SUBMITTER: Katz A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5003029 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Non-canonical roles of tRNAs and tRNA mimics in bacterial cell biology.

Katz Assaf A Elgamal Sara S Rajkovic Andrei A Ibba Michael M

Molecular microbiology 20160628 4

Transfer RNAs (tRNAs) are the macromolecules that transfer activated amino acids from aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases to the ribosome, where they are used for the mRNA guided synthesis of proteins. Transfer RNAs are ancient molecules, perhaps even predating the existence of the translation machinery. Albeit old, these molecules are tremendously conserved, a characteristic that is well illustrated by the fact that some bacterial tRNAs are efficient and specific substrates of eukaryotic aminoacyl-tRNA ...[more]

PMID: 27169680

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Project description:Protein biosynthesis is a central process in all living cells that is catalyzed by a complex molecular machine─the ribosome. This process is termed translation because the language of nucleotides in mRNAs is translated into the language of amino acids in proteins. Transfer RNA (tRNA) molecules charged with amino acids serve as adaptors and recognize codons of mRNA in the decoding center while simultaneously the individual amino acids are assembled into a peptide chain in the peptidyl transferase center (PTC). As the nascent peptide emerges from the ribosome, it is threaded through a long tunnel referred to as a nascent peptide exit tunnel (NPET). The PTC and NPET are the sites targeted by many antibiotics and are thus of tremendous importance from a biomedical perspective and for drug development in the pharmaceutical industry.Researchers have achieved much progress in characterizing ribosomal translation at the molecular level; an impressive number of high-resolution structures of different functional and inhibited states of the ribosome are now available. These structures have significantly contributed to our understanding of how the ribosome interacts with its key substrates, namely, mRNA, tRNAs, and translation factors. In contrast, much less is known about the mechanisms of how small molecules, especially antibiotics, affect ribosomal protein synthesis. This mainly concerns the structural basis of small molecule-NPET interference with cotranslational protein folding and the regulation of protein synthesis. Growing biochemical evidence suggests that NPET plays an active role in the regulation of protein synthesis.Much-needed progress in this field is hampered by the fact that during the preparation of ribosome complexes for structural studies (i.e., X-ray crystallography, cryoelectron microscopy, and NMR spectroscopy) the aminoacyl- or peptidyl-tRNAs are unstable and become hydrolyzed. A solution to this problem is the application of hydrolysis-resistant mimics of aminoacyl- or peptidyl-tRNAs.In this Account, we present an overview of synthetic methods for the generation of peptidyl-tRNA analogs. Modular approaches have been developed that combine (i) RNA and peptide solid-phase synthesis on 3'-aminoacylamino-adenosine resins, (ii) native chemical ligations and Staudinger ligations, (iii) tailoring of tRNAs by the selective cleavage of natural native tRNAs with DNAzymes followed by reassembly with enzymatic ligation to synthetic peptidyl-RNA fragments, and (iv) enzymatic tailing and cysteine charging of the tRNA to obtain modified CCA termini of a tRNA that are chemically ligated to the peptide moiety of interest. With this arsenal of tools, in principle, any desired sequence of a stably linked peptidyl-tRNA mimic is accessible. To underline the significance of the synthetic conjugates, we briefly point to the most critical applications that have shed new light on the molecular mechanisms underlying the context-specific activity of ribosome-targeting antibiotics, ribosome-dependent incorporation of multiple consecutive proline residues, the incorporation of d-amino acids, and tRNA mischarging.Furthermore, we discuss new types of stably charged tRNA analogs, relying on triazole- and squarate (instead of amide)-linked conjugates. Those have pushed forward our mechanistic understanding of nonribosomal peptide synthesis, where aminoacyl-tRNA-dependent enzymes are critically involved in various cellular processes in primary and secondary metabolism and in bacterial cell wall synthesis.

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Non-canonical roles of tRNAs and tRNA mimics in bacterial cell biology.

Publications

Non-canonical roles of tRNAs and tRNA mimics in bacterial cell biology.

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