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PMID: 11726686 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Review

Misreading of termination codons in eukaryotes by natural nonsense suppressor tRNAs.

Nucleic acids research ·Vol. 29 ·No. 23 ·2001-12-01 ·Pages 4767-82

Beier H, Grimm M

Abstract

Translational stop codon readthrough provides a regulatory mechanism of gene expression that is extensively utilised by positive-sense ssRNA viruses. The misreading of termination codons is achieved by a variety of naturally occurring suppressor tRNAs whose structure and function is the subject of this survey. All of the nonsense suppressors characterised to date (with the exception of selenocysteine tRNA) are normal cellular tRNAs that are primarily needed for reading their cognate sense codons. As a consequence, recognition of stop codons by natural suppressor tRNAs necessitates unconventional base pairings in anticodon-codon interactions. A number of intrinsic features of the suppressor tRNA contributes to the ability to read non-cognate codons. Apart from anticodon-codon affinity, the extent of base modifications within or 3' of the anticodon may up- or down-regulate the efficiency of suppression. In order to out-compete the polypeptide chain release factor an absolute prerequisite for the action of natural suppressor tRNAs is a suitable nucleotide context, preferentially at the 3' side of the suppressed stop codon. Three major types of viral readthrough sites, based on similar sequences neighbouring the leaky stop codon, can be defined. It is discussed that not only RNA viruses, but also the eukaryotic host organism might gain some profit from cellular suppressor tRNAs.

MeSH Terms
Animals Base Pairing Base Sequence Codon, Terminator/genetics Gene Expression Regulation, Viral Molecular Sequence Data Peptide Chain Termination, Translational RNA Viruses/genetics RNA, Chloroplast/genetics RNA, Transfer/chemistry,physiology RNA, Viral/chemistry,physiology
Chemicals
Codon, Terminator RNA, Chloroplast RNA, Viral RNA, Transfer
Authors & Affiliations
2 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Beier H
Institut für Biochemie, Bayerische Julius-Maximilians-Universität, Biozentrum, Am Hubland, D-97074 Würzburg, Germany. [email protected]
Grimm M
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Article Info
Journal
Nucleic acids research
Abbr.
Nucleic Acids Res
ISSN
1362-4962
DOI
10.1093/nar/29.23.4767
Email
[email protected]
Published
2001-12-01
Pages
4767-82
Language
English
Region
England
NLM ID
0411011
PMCID
PMC96686
Subset
IM
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1093/nar/29.23.4767 PMC Full Text View journal details
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