Abstract
Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (ARS) are modular enzymes that aminoacylate transfer RNAs (tRNA) for their use by the ribosome during protein synthesis. ARS are essential and universal components of the genetic code that were almost completely established before the appearance of the last common ancestor of all living species. This long evolutionary history explains the growing number of functions being discovered for ARS, and for ARS homologues, beyond their canonical role in gene translation. Here we present a previously uncharacterized paralogue of seryl-tRNA synthetase named SLIMP (seryl-tRNA synthetase-like insect mitochondrial protein). SLIMP is the result of a duplication of a mitochondrial seryl-tRNA synthetase (SRS) gene that took place in early metazoans and was fixed in Insecta. Here we show that SLIMP is localized in the mitochondria, where it carries out an essential function that is unrelated to the aminoacylation of tRNA. The knockdown of SLIMP by RNA interference (RNAi) causes a decrease in respiration capacity and an increase in mitochondrial mass in the form of aberrant mitochondria.
Highlights
Aminoacyl-transfer RNAs (tRNA) synthetases (ARS)2 are an ancient family of enzymes with an essential role in protein synthesis
Seryl-tRNA synthetases (SRS) are among the few enzymes that remain duplicated in the cell; one isoform acts in the cytosol, and the second functions in the mitochondria, where it needs to recognize the highly diverged structures of mitochondrial tRNASer
SLIMP Is a Fast Evolving SRS Paralogue Universally Distributed in Insecta—Analysis of the distribution of genes coding for SLIMP homologues reveals that they are present in all available insect genomes, as well as echinoderms and arachnids
Summary
Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (ARS)2 are an ancient family of enzymes with an essential role in protein synthesis. 2 The abbreviations used are: ARS, aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase(s); SRS, seryltRNA synthetase(s); SLIMP, seryl-tRNA synthetase-like insect mitochondrial protein; Nt, N terminus. During the process of constructing a model for human disorders caused by mitochondrial tRNA aminoacylation deficiencies in Drosophila melanogaster, we realized that the genome of this species contains three genes coding for SRS homologous sequences.
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