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Twenty different aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (ARSs) link each amino acid to their cognate tRNAs. Individual ARSs are also associated with various non-canonical activities involved in neuronal diseases, cancer and autoimmune diseases. Among them, eight ARSs (D, EP, I, K, L, M, Q and RARS), together with three ARS-interacting multifunctional proteins (AIMPs), are currently known to assemble the multi-synthetase complex (MSC). However, the cellular function and global topology of MSC remain unclear. In order to understand the complex interaction within MSC, we conducted affinity purification-mass spectrometry (AP-MS) using each of AIMP1, AIMP2 and KARS as a bait protein. Mass spectrometric data were funneled into SAINT software to distinguish true interactions from background contaminants. A total of 40, 134, 101 proteins in each bait scored over 0.9 of SAINT probability in HEK 293T cells. Complex-forming ARSs, such as DARS, EPRS, IARS, Kars, LARS, MARS, QARS and RARS, were constantly found to interact with each bait. Variants such as, AIMP2-DX2 and AIMP1 isoform 2 were found with specific peptides in KARS precipitates. Relative enrichment analysis of the mass spectrometric data demonstrated that TARSL2 (threonyl-tRNA synthetase like-2) was highly enriched with the ARS-core complex. The interaction was further confirmed by coimmunoprecipitation of TARSL2 with other ARS core-complex components. We suggest TARSL2 as a new component of ARS core-complex.

Antibodies directed against soluble cellular antigens are a distinctive feature of systemic autoimmune disease. We have examined 22 autoantibodies in sera from 1111 patients and present the disease associations together with a biochemical analysis of the antigens. The data emphasize the clinical specificity of the antibodies and the restricted number of cellular components that commonly elicit an immune response. In several instances, serological relationships between antibodies mirror biochemical relationships between the corresponding antigens. The antigens are mainly proteins and are often present in complexes with additional protein or nucleic acid molecules. In myositis the antibodies react chiefly with cytoplasmic antigens such as aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases, in contrast to the mainly antinuclear response in SLE. It is argued that both environmental stimuli and genetic factors govern autoantibody specificity, and that molecular characterization of the cellular antigens may yield clues to the aetiology of the disease and of the concomitant, specific autoimmune response.

The solution structure of Escherichia coli tRNA(3Thr) (anticodon GGU) and the residues of this tRNA in contact with the alpha 2 dimeric threonyl-tRNA synthetase were studied by chemical and enzymatic footprinting experiments. Alkylation of phosphodiester bonds by ethylnitrosourea and of N-7 positions in guanosines and N-3 positions in cytidines by dimethyl sulphate as well as carbethoxylation of N-7 positions in adenosines by diethyl pyrocarbonate were conducted on different conformers of tRNA(3Thr). The enzymatic structural probes were nuclease S1 and the cobra venom ribonuclease. Results will be compared to those of three other tRNAs, tRNA(Asp), tRNA(Phe) and tRNA(Trp), already mapped with these probes. The reactivity of phosphates towards ethylnitrosourea of the unfolded tRNA was compared to that of the native molecule. The alkylation pattern of tRNA(3Thr) shows some similarities to that of yeast tRNA(Phe) and mammalian tRNA(Trp), especially in the D-arm (positions 19 and 24) and with tRNA(Trp), at position 50, the junction between the variable region and the T-stem. In the T-loop, tRNA(3Thr), similarly to the three other tRNAs, shows protections against alkylation at phosphates 59 and 60. However, tRNA(3Thr) is unique as far as very strong protections are also found for phosphates 55 to 58 in the T-loop. Compared with yeast tRNA(Asp), the main differences in reactivity concern phosphates 19, 24 and 50. Mapping of bases with dimethyl sulphate and diethyl pyrocarbonate reveal conformational similarities with yeast tRNA(Phe). A striking conformational feature of tRNA(3Thr) is found in the 3'-side of its anticodon stem, where G40, surrounded by two G residues, is alkylated under native conditions, in contrast to other G residues in stem regions of tRNAs which are unreactive when sandwiched between two purines. This data is indicative of a perturbed helical conformation in the anticodon stem at the level of the 30-40 base pairs. Footprinting experiments, with chemical and enzymatic probes, on the tRNA complexed with its cognate threonyl-tRNA synthetase indicate significant protections in the anticodon stem and loop region, in the extra-loop, and in the amino acid accepting region. The involvement of the anticodon of tRNA(3Thr) in the recognition process with threonyl-tRNA synthetase was demonstrated by nuclease S1 mapping and by the protection of G34 and G35 against alkylation by dimethyl sulphate. These data are discussed in the light of the tRNA/synthetase recognition problem and of the structural and functional properties of the tRNA-like structure present in the operator region of the thrS mRNA.

Five mutations in thrS, the gene for threonyl-tRNA synthetase, have been characterized, and the sites of the mutations have been localized to different regions of the thrS gene by recombination with M13 phage carrying portions of the thrS gene. Quantitative immunoblotting shows that some of these mutations cause the overproduction of structurally altered threonyl-tRNA synthetase in vivo. The amounts of in vivo thrS mRNA as measured by quantitative hybridization are, however, the same as wild-type levels for each mutant. These results demonstrate that the expression of threonyl-tRNA synthetase is autoregulated at the posttranscriptional level in vivo.

Threonyl-transfer ribonucleic acid synthetase (ThrRS) has been purified from a strain of Escherichia coli that shows a ninefold overproduction of this enzyme. Determination of the molecular weight of the purified, native enzyme by gel chromatography and by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis at different gel concentrations yielded apparent molecular weight values of 150,000 and 161,000, respectively. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate yields a single protein band of 76,000-dalton size. From these results an alpha(2) subunit structure can be inferred. A mutant with a structurally altered ThrRS, which had been obtained by selection for resistance against the antibiotic borrelidin, was used to map the position of the ThrRS structural gene (thrS) by P1 transductions. It was found that thrS is located in the immediate neighborhood of pheS and pheT, which are the structural genes for the alpha and beta subunits of phenylalanyl-transfer ribonucleic acid (tRNA) synthetase, the gene order being aroD-pheT-pheS-thrS. A lambda phage that was previously shown to specifically transduce pheS, pheT, and also the structural gene for the translation initiation factor IF3 can complement the defect of the altered ThrRS of the borrelidin-resistant strain. This phage also stimulates the synthesis of the 76,000, molecular-weight polypeptide of ThrRS in ultraviolet light-irradiated. E. coli cells. These results indicate that the genes for ThrRS, alpha and beta subunits of phenylalanyl-tRNA synthetase, and initiation factor IF3 are immediately adjacent on the E. coli chromosome.

The heat shock proteins DnaK and DnaJ of Escherichia coli participate in phosphorylation of both glutaminyl-tRNA synthetase and threonyl-tRNA synthetase. When cellular proteins extracted from the dnaK7(Ts) and dnaJ259(Ts) mutant cells labeled with 32Pi at 42 degrees C were analyzed by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, no phosphorylation of these proteins was observed when they were compared with those from wild-type cells.