E coli tRNA coding for Selenocysteine TCA anti-codon
E. coli tRNA^Sec(TCA) is a 95-nucleotide transfer RNA that decodes UGA selenocysteine codons via its TCA (UCA) anticodon and is the dedicated carrier of selenocysteine (Sec), the 21st genetically encoded amino acid. Unlike all canonical tRNAs, tRNA^Sec is first aminoacylated with serine by seryl-tRNA synthetase (SerRS), and the resulting Ser-tRNA^Sec is then enzymatically converted to Sec-tRNA^Sec by selenocysteine synthase (SelA), in a pyridoxal phosphate-dependent reaction using selenophosphate as the selenium donor. tRNA^Sec is structurally unique among bacterial tRNAs: at 95 nucleotides it is the longest E. coli tRNA, possesses an unusually long acceptor stem (13 bp including a mismatched pair), an elongated D-arm, and lacks the canonical D-loop/T-loop tertiary interactions found in all other tRNAs, giving it a distinct structural identity. UGA recoding as Sec, rather than termination, requires a downstream mRNA stem-loop structure called the SECIS element, which recruits the specialized elongation factor SelB (a functional analogue of EF-Tu) that delivers Sec-tRNA^Sec to the ribosome. Its exceptional structural and biochemical properties make tRNA^Sec one of the most studied non-canonical tRNAs in molecular and synthetic biology.
Applications -
1) RNAcentral ID: URS00002F9CDD_511145
2) Forchhammer, K., & Böck, A. (1991). "Selenocysteine synthase from Escherichia coli: analysis of the reaction sequence." Journal of Biological Chemistry, 266(10), 6324–6328
3) Itoh, Y., et al. (2013). "Crystallographic and mutational studies of seryl-tRNA synthetase from the archaeon Methanopyrus kandleri." Nucleic Acids Research, 41(11), 6729–6738
4) Aldag, C., et al. (2013). "Rewiring translation for elongation factor Tu-independent selenocysteine incorporation." Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 52(5), 1441–1445
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