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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1994 May 10;91(10):4254–4257. doi: 10.1073/pnas.91.10.4254

Effector region of the translation elongation factor EF-Tu.GTP complex stabilizes an orthoester acid intermediate structure of aminoacyl-tRNA in a ternary complex.

C Förster 1, S Limmer 1, W Zeidler 1, M Sprinzl 1
PMCID: PMC43763  PMID: 8183898

Abstract

tRNA(Val) from Escherichia coli was aminoacylated with [1-13C]valine and its complex with Thermus thermophilus elongation factor EF-Tu.GTP was analyzed by 13C NMR spectroscopy. The results suggest that the aminoacyl residue of the valyl-tRNA in ternary complex with bacterial EF-Tu and GTP is not attached to tRNA by a regular ester bond to either a 2'- or 3'-hydroxyl group; instead, an intermediate orthoester acid structure with covalent linkage to both vicinal hydroxyls of the terminal adenosine-76 is formed. Mutation of arginine-59 located in the effector region of EF-Tu, a conserved residue in protein elongation factors and the alpha subunits of heterotrimeric guanine nucleotide-binding regulatory proteins (G proteins), abolishes the stabilization of the orthoester acid structure of aminoacyl-tRNA.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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