Nucleotide sequence of phenylalanine transfer RNA from Schizosaccharomyces pombe: implications for transfer RNA recognition by yeast phenylalanyl-tRNA synthetase

The nucleotide sequence of Schizosaccharomyces pombe tRNAPhe was determined to be pG-U-C-G-C-A-A-U-G**-G*-U-G-psi-A-G-D-D-G-G-G-A-G-C-A-psi-G*-A-C-A-G-A-Cm-U-Gm-A-A-Y-A-psi-m5C-U-G-U-U-G-m7G-U*-C-A-U-C-G-G-T-psi-C-G-A-U-C-C-C-G-G-U-U-U-G-U-G-A-C-A-C-C-AOH. This sequence differs from that of S. cerevisiae tRNAPhe in 27 nucleotides. Saccharomyces cerevisiae phenylalanyl-tRNA synthetase aminoacylates both the homologous tRNAPhe and S. pombe t-NAPhe; the reactions have similar Km and Vmax values. However, the nucleotide sequence in the D stem is different in the two tRNAs. This region was proposed by Roe, B., et al. [(1973) Biochemistry 12, 4146--4154] to be the major recognition site for yeast phenylalanyl-tRNA synthetase, but the present results cast doubt on the validity of this hypothesis.