Enzyme structure with two catalytic sites for double-sieve selection of substrate.
Nureki, O., Vassylyev, D.G., Tateno, M., Shimada, A., Nakama, T., Fukai, S., Konno, M., Hendrickson, T.L., Schimmel, P., Yokoyama, S.(1998) Science 280: 578-582
- PubMed: 9554847 
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.280.5363.578
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:  
1ILE - PubMed Abstract: 
High-fidelity transfers of genetic information in the central dogma can be achieved by a reaction called editing. The crystal structure of an enzyme with editing activity in translation is presented here at 2.5 angstroms resolution. The enzyme, isoleucyl-transfer RNA synthetase, activates not only the cognate substrate L-isoleucine but also the minimally distinct L-valine in the first, aminoacylation step. Then, in a second, "editing" step, the synthetase itself rapidly hydrolyzes only the valylated products. For this two-step substrate selection, a "double-sieve" mechanism has already been proposed. The present crystal structures of the synthetase in complexes with L-isoleucine and L-valine demonstrate that the first sieve is on the aminoacylation domain containing the Rossmann fold, whereas the second, editing sieve exists on a globular beta-barrel domain that protrudes from the aminoacylation domain.
Organizational Affiliation: 
Department of Biophysics and Biochemistry, Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113, Japan.