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A role for the universal Kae1/Qri7/YgjD (COG0533) family in tRNA modification
Author(s) -
El Yacoubi Basma,
Hatin Isabelle,
Deutsch Christopher,
Kahveci Tamer,
Rousset JeanPierre,
IwataReuyl Dirk,
G Murzin Alexey,
de CrécyLagard Valérie
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
the embo journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 7.484
H-Index - 392
eISSN - 1460-2075
pISSN - 0261-4189
DOI - 10.1038/emboj.2010.363
Subject(s) - biology , genetics , transfer rna , ribosome , computational biology , gene , rna
The YgjD/Kae1 family (COG0533) has been on the top‐10 list of universally conserved proteins of unknown function for over 5 years. It has been linked to DNA maintenance in bacteria and mitochondria and transcription regulation and telomere homeostasis in eukaryotes, but its actual function has never been found. Based on a comparative genomic and structural analysis, we predicted this family was involved in the biosynthesis of N 6 ‐threonylcarbamoyl adenosine, a universal modification found at position 37 of tRNAs decoding ANN codons. This was confirmed as a yeast mutant lacking Kae1 is devoid of t 6 A. t 6 A − strains were also used to reveal that t 6 A has a critical role in initiation codon restriction to AUG and in restricting frameshifting at tandem ANN codons. We also showed that YaeZ, a YgjD paralog, is required for YgjD function in vivo in bacteria. This work lays the foundation for understanding the pleiotropic role of this universal protein family.