Evolutionary aspects of accuracy of phenylalanyl-tRNA synthetase. Accuracy of the cytoplasmic and chloroplastic enzymes of a higher plant (Phaseolus vulgaris).

The phenylalanyl-tRNA synthetases from cytoplasm and chloroplasts of bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) leaves employ different strategies with respect to accuracy. The chloroplastic enzyme that is coded for by the nuclear genome follows the pathway of posttransfer proofreading, also characteristic for enzymes from eubacteria and cytoplasm and mitochondria of lower eukaryotic organisms. In contrast, the cytoplasmic enzyme uses pretransfer proofreading in the case of noncognate natural amino acids, characteristic for higher eukaryotic organisms and archaebacteria. Dependent on the nature of the noncognate amino acid, pretransfer proofreading in this case occurs without tRNA stimulation or with tRNA stimulated with no or little effect of the nonaccepting 3'-OH group of the terminal adenosine. The fundamental mechanistic difference in proofreading between the heterotopic intracellular isoenzymes of the plant cell supports the idea of the origin of the chloroplastic gene by gene transfer from a eubacterial endosymbiont to the nucleus. Origin by duplication of the nuclear gene, as indicated for mitochondrial phenylalanyl-tRNA synthetases [Gabius, H.-J., Engelhardt, R., Schroeder, F.R., & Cramer, F. (1983) Biochemistry 22, 5306-5315], appears unlikely. Further analyses of the ATP/PPi pyrophosphate exchange and aminoacylation of tRNAPhe-C-C-A(3'NH2), using 11 phenylalanine analogues, reveal intraspecies and interspecies variability of the architecture of the amino acid binding part within the active site.