2022
Ancestral archaea expanded the genetic code with pyrrolysine
Guo LT, Amikura K, Jiang HK, Mukai T, Fu X, Wang YS, O’Donoghue P, Söll D, Tharp JM. Ancestral archaea expanded the genetic code with pyrrolysine. Journal Of Biological Chemistry 2022, 298: 102521. PMID: 36152750, PMCID: PMC9630628, DOI: 10.1016/j.jbc.2022.102521.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchConceptsAminoacylation efficiencyGenetic code expansionDomains of lifePyrrolysyl-tRNA synthetaseTRNA-binding domainFull-length enzymeNoncanonical amino acidsAmino acid substratesMolecular phylogenyDiverse archaeaCoevolutionary historyTRNA sequencesGenetic codeCode expansionDiscriminator basesMethanogenic archaeaMethanosarcina mazeiPylRSSubstrate spectrumTRNAArchaeaMultiple organismsLiving cellsAcid substratesAmino acidsThe tRNA discriminator base defines the mutual orthogonality of two distinct pyrrolysyl-tRNA synthetase/tRNAPyl pairs in the same organism
Zhang H, Gong X, Zhao Q, Mukai T, Vargas-Rodriguez O, Zhang H, Zhang Y, Wassel P, Amikura K, Maupin-Furlow J, Ren Y, Xu X, Wolf YI, Makarova KS, Koonin EV, Shen Y, Söll D, Fu X. The tRNA discriminator base defines the mutual orthogonality of two distinct pyrrolysyl-tRNA synthetase/tRNAPyl pairs in the same organism. Nucleic Acids Research 2022, 50: gkac271-. PMID: 35466371, PMCID: PMC9071458, DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkac271.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchConceptsGenetic code expansionCode expansionDistinct non-canonical amino acidsOrthogonal aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase/tRNA pairsAminoacyl-tRNA synthetase/tRNA pairsPyrrolysyl-tRNA synthetase/Halophilic archaeon Haloferax volcaniiAdditional coding capacityDistinct noncanonical amino acidsNon-canonical amino acidsArchaeon Haloferax volcaniiDiscriminator baseAmino acidsPyrrolysyl-tRNA synthetaseNoncanonical amino acidsSite-specific incorporationMotif 2 loopSingle base changeDistinct tRNAsTRNA pairsHaloferax volcaniiUAA codonGenetic codeDiscriminator basesTRNA structure
2020
Front Cover: Hijacking Translation Initiation for Synthetic Biology (ChemBioChem 10/2020)
Tharp J, Krahn N, Varshney U, Söll D. Front Cover: Hijacking Translation Initiation for Synthetic Biology (ChemBioChem 10/2020). ChemBioChem 2020, 21: 1383-1383. DOI: 10.1002/cbic.202000239.Peer-Reviewed Reviews, Practice Guidelines, Standards, and Consensus Statements