Nucleic Acids Research, 1981, Vol. 9, No. 13 3199-3204
© 1981
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY |
The nucleotide sequence of Euglena cytoplasmic phenylalanine transfer RNA. Evidence for possible classification of Euglena among the animal rather than the plant kingdom
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*Department of Biochemistry, Louisiana State University Baton Rouge, LA 70803
+Biology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge, TN 37830, USA
Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA 02139
Received February 18, 1981.
The nudeotide sequence of cytoplasmic phenylalanine tRNA from Euglena gracilis has been elucidated using procedures described previously for the corresponding chloroplastic tRNA [Cell, 9, 717 (1976)]. The sequence is:pG-C-C-G-A-C-U-U-A-m2G-C-U-Cm-A-G-D-D-G-G-G-A-G-A-G-C-m22G-
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-A-G-A-Cm-U-Gm-A-A-Y-A-
-C-U-A-A-A-G-m7G-U-C-*C-C-U-G-G-T-
-C-G-m1A-U-C-C-C-G-G-G-A-G-
-CG-G-C-A-C-C-A. Like other tRNAPhes thus far sequenced, this tRNA has achain length of 76 nucleotides. The sequence of E. gracilis cytoplasmic tRNAphe is quite different (27 nucleotides out of 76 different) from that of the corresponding chloroplastic tRNA but is surprisingly similar (72 out of 76 nucleotides identical) to that of tRNAphe from mammalian cytoplasm. This extent of sequence homology even exceeds that found between 12. gracilis and wheat germ cytoplasmic tRNAphe. These findings raise interesting questions on the evolution of tRNAs and the taxonomy of Euglena.
Present address: Chemical Carcinogenesis Group, Frederick Cancer Research Center, P.O. Box B, Frederick, Maryland 21701