FIGURE 2.

tRNA conformation and tRNA-protein interactions. A, stereo overlay of the unfolded anticodon loop in the present complex (gold) with a canonical anticodon-loop structure in red exemplified by yeast tRNA(Phe) (from 1EHZ; Ref. 18). For clarity, the bases in yeast tRNA(Phe) are shown unmodified. B, summary of RNA-protein interactions. Protein and nucleic acid are colored as in Fig. 1. Green arrows for side chain-RNA interactions, blue for backbone-RNA interactions, and red for intra-RNA interactions (excluding standard pairing). S80 is excluded for clarity. Gray insert, consensus sequence of the eight tRNAs in E. coli that are modified by MiaA. Nucleotide numbering is in red. N is any nucleotide. C, close-up in stereo of the tight interaction between G34 and the “bottom” loop.