[Stability of phosphodiester tRNA bonds lacking minor nucleosides, in aminoacyl tRNA-synthetase complexes].

The stability of phosphodiester bonds in tRNA(Trp) (E. coli, bovine) and tRNA(Phe) (yeast) synthesized in vitro was studied in the complexes with cognate aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases. In contrast to E. coli tRNA(Gln) where synthetase-induced cleavage has been reported, we have failed to observe this effect with tRNA(Trp) and tRNA(Phe). Consequently, the weakness of sugar-phosphate backbone of tRNA-transcripts in the complexes is not a common feature for all tRNA-synthetase pairs. The cleavage mechanism in the case of tRNA(Gln) remains obscure.