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Adding pyrrolysine to the Escherichia coli genetic code
Author(s) -
Namy Olivier,
Zhou Yu,
Gundllapalli Sarath,
Polycarpo Carla R.,
Denise Alain,
Rousset Jean-Pierre,
Söll Dieter,
Ambrogelly Alexandre
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/j.febslet.2007.10.022
Subject(s) - methanosarcina barkeri , escherichia coli , transfer rna , biology , context (archaeology) , microbiology and biotechnology , rna , genetic code , chemistry , biochemistry , amino acid , genetics , gene , bacteria , methanogenesis , paleontology
Pyrrolysyl‐tRNA synthetase and its cognate suppressor tRNA Pyl mediate pyrrolysine (Pyl) insertion at in frame UAG codons. The presence of an RNA hairpin structure named Pyl insertion structure (PYLIS) downstream of the suppression site has been shown to stimulate the insertion of Pyl in archaea. We study here the impact of the presence of PYLIS on the level of Pyl and the Pyl analog N ‐ ε ‐cyclopentyloxycarbonyl‐ l ‐lysine (Cyc) incorporation using a quantitative lacZ – luc tandem reporter system in an Escherichia coli context. We show that PYLIS has no effect on the level of neither Pyl nor Cyc incorporation. Exogenously supplying our reporter system with d ‐ornithine significantly increases suppression efficiency, indicating that d ‐ornithine is a direct precursor to Pyl.