A noncanonical tertiary conformation of a human mitochondrial transfer RNA.

Transfer RNAs possess highly conserved secondary structures, and crystallographic studies suggest a common, L-shaped tertiary conformation in which the anticodon and acceptor stems are disposed at approximately right angles to one another. However, many animal mitochondrial tRNAs possess unusual secondary structures, and little is known regarding their tertiary conformations, in particular, the relative orientations of their acceptor and anticodon stems. To address this issue, we have constructed heteroduplex RNA molecules corresponding to human mitochondrial and cytoplasmic lysyl tRNAs in which the acceptor and anticodon stems of each tRNA have been extended by approximately 70 base pairs. The rotational decay times of the two "extended" tRNA(Lys) species were compared to the decay times of a linear RNA control and to an extended yeast cytoplasmic tRNA(Phe) species whose interstem angle had been reported previously. Whereas the apparent interstem angle of the human cytoplasmic tRNA(Lys) species is essentially identical to that of the yeast tRNA(Phe) heteroduplex, with both conforming to the canonical L-shape, the angle for the mitochondrial tRNA(Lys) construct is much larger (approximately 140 degrees). Thus, the universal L-shape may not be applicable to noncanonical mitochondrial tRNAs, a finding of significance for both tRNA evolution and mitochondrial disease.