Aminoacyl-tRNA Synthetase

High Fidelity

Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases must perform their tasks with high accuracy. Every mistake they make will result in a misplaced amino acid when new proteins are constructed. These enzymes make about one mistake in 10,000. For most amino acids, this level of accuracy is not too difficult to achieve. Most of the amino acids are quite different from one another, and, as mentioned before, many parts of the different tRNA are used for accurate recognition. But in a few cases, it is difficult to choose just the right amino acids and these enzymes must resort to special techniques.

Isoleucine is a particularly difficult example. It is recognized by an isoleucine-shaped hole in the enzyme, which is too small to fit larger amino acids like methionine and phenylalanine, and too hydrophobic to bind anything with polar sidechains. But, the slightly smaller amino acid valine, different by only a single methyl group, also fits nicely into this pocket, binding instead of isoleucine in about 1 in 150 times. This is far too many errors, so corrective steps must be taken. Isoleucyl-tRNA synthetase (PDB entry 1ffy) solves this problem with a second active site, which performs an editing reaction. Isoleucine does not fit into this site, but errant valine does. The mistake is then cleaved away, leaving the tRNA ready for a properly-placed leucine amino acid. This proofreading step improves the overall error rate to about 1 in 3,000.