Cysteinyl-tRNA formation and prolyl-tRNA synthetase.
Jacquin-Becker C., Ahel I., Ambrogelly A., Ruan B., Söll D., Stathopoulos C.
Aminoacyl-tRNA (AA-tRNA) formation is a key step in protein biosynthesis. This reaction is catalyzed with remarkable accuracy by the AA-tRNA synthetases, a family of 20 evolutionarily conserved enzymes. The lack of cysteinyl-tRNA (Cys-tRNA) synthetase in some archaea gave rise to the discovery of the archaeal prolyl-tRNA (Pro-tRNA) synthetase, an enzyme capable of synthesizing Pro-tRNA and Cys-tRNA. Here we review our current knowledge of this fascinating process.