FEBS Letters
Volume 584, Issue 2 , Pages 297-302, 21 January 2010

tRNA-nucleotidyltransferases: Highly unusual RNA polymerases with vital functions

Edited by Manuel Santos

Institute for Biochemistry, University of Leipzig, Brüderstr. 34, 04103 Leipzig, Germany

Received 30 September 2009; accepted 29 October 2009. published online 02 November 2009.

Abstract 

tRNA-nucleotidyltransferases are fascinating and unusual RNA polymerases responsible for the synthesis of the nucleotide triplet CCA at the 3′-terminus of tRNAs. As this CCA end represents an essential functional element for aminoacylation and translation, these polymerases (CCA-adding enzymes) are of vital importance in all organisms. With a possible origin of ancient telomerase-like activity, the CCA-adding enzymes obviously emerged twice during evolution, leading to structurally different, but functionally identical enzymes. The evolution as well as the unique polymerization features of these interesting proteins will be discussed in this review.

Keywords: tRNA, Nucleotidyltransferase, ATP(CTP):tRNA nucleotidyltransferase, CCA-adding enzyme

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PII: S0014-5793(09)00870-9

doi:10.1016/j.febslet.2009.10.078

FEBS Letters
Volume 584, Issue 2 , Pages 297-302, 21 January 2010

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