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Threonine tRNAs and their genes in Escherichia coli

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Summary

The subject of this study was the threonine isoacceptor family of tRNAs in Escherichia coli and the genes coding for them. The goal was to identify and map all the genes and to determine the relative contribution of each gene to the tRNA pool. The mapping experiments exploited gene-dosage effects in partially diploid strains; if a strain harboring a particular F′ episome overproduced a particular tRNA species, it could be concluded that the gene for that tRNA was located on the chromosomal segment carried by the F′. Isoacceptor tRNAs were distinguished by column fractionation. It was found that there are three major threonine tRNA species that occur in roughly equal amounts. These are tRNA Thr1 , which is encoded by a gene in the distal region of the rrnD ribosomal RNA operon, and tRNA Thr3 and tRNA Thr4 , which come from genes in the cluster thrU tyrU glyT thrT at 89 min on the map. The relative abundances of the tRNA species roughly match the reported frequencies of the codons that they recognize in mRNA. Although the tRNA Thr4 has a mismatched base pair that raised questions about its biological activity, it was found to be functional at least with respect to recognition by the threonyl-tRNA synthetase. An apparent fourth gene affecting threonine tRNA has been identified and mapped at 6–8 min; it is here designated thrW. It may be a structural gene for a minor tRNA species, present in one-third the amount of each of the major species, and chromatographically indistinguishable from tRNA Thr4 .

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Clark University, 01610, Worcester, MA, USA

    M. Margaret Comer

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  1. M. Margaret Comer
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Additional information

Communicated by A. Böck

A preliminary report of most of this work has appeared previously (M.M. Comer, Abstr. Annu. Meet. Am. Soc. Microbiol. 1980, p. 109)

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Comer, M.M. Threonine tRNAs and their genes in Escherichia coli . Molec. Gen. Genet. 187, 132–137 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00384396

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00384396

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