Classes
There are two classes of aminoacyl tRNA synthetase:
- Class I has two highly conserved sequence motifs. It aminoacylates at the 2'-OH of an adenosine nucleotide, and is usually monomeric or dimeric (one or two subunits, respectively).
- Class II has three highly conserved sequence motifs. It aminoacylates at the 3'-OH of the same adenosine, and is usually dimeric or tetrameric (two or four subunits, respectively). Although phenylalanine-tRNA synthetase is class II, it aminoacylates at the 2'-OH.
The amino acids are attached to the hydroxyl (-OH) group of the adenosine via the carboxyl (-COOH) group.
Regardless of where the aminoacyl is initially attached to the nucleotide, the 2'-O-aminoacyl-tRNA will ultimately migrate to the 3' position via transesterification.
Read more about this topic: Aminoacyl TRNA Synthetase
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