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The RNA required in the first step of chlorophyll biosynthesis is a chloroplast glutamate tRNA

Nature volume 322, pages 281–284 (1986)Cite this article

Abstract

A molecule of chlorophyll is synthesized from eight molecules of δ-aminolevulinate (DALA), the universal precursor of porphyrins. The light-regulated conversion of glutamate to δ-aminolevulinate in the stroma of greening plastids involves the reduction of glutamate to glutamate-1-semialdehyde and its subsequent transamination1–5. The components performing this conversion have been isolated from barley1,2 and Chlamydomonas5 and separated into three fractions by serial affinity chromatography on Blue Sepharose and haem–1,5 or chlorophyllin–Sepharose2. The complete reaction can be performed in vitro in a reconstituted assay by combining all three fractions. An RNA is the essential component of the chlorophyllin–Sepharose-bound fraction2,3. By nucleotide sequence analysis, we have now identified this RNA as a chloroplast glutamate acceptor RNA. Glutamate attached by an aminoacyl bond to the 3′-terminal adenosine of this RNA is a substrate for the enzyme(s) which perform the subsequent reactions. This reaction represents a novel role for transfer RNA: participation in the metabolic conversion of its cognate amino acid into another metabolite of low relative molecular mass which subsequently is not used in peptide bond synthesis.

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Author notes

  1. Astrid Schön

    Present address: Institut für Biochemie, Universität Würzburg, D-8700, Würzburg, FRG

  2. Simon Gough, Sandra Berry-Lowe and C. Gamini Kannangara: Department of Physiology, Carlsberg Laboratory, Gamle Carlsberg Vej 10, 2500 Copenhagen Valby, Denmark

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University, PO Box 6666, New Haven, Connecticut, 06511, USA

    Astrid Schön, Guido Krupp, Simon Gough, Sandra Berry-Lowe, C. Gamini Kannangara & Dieter Söll

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Schön, A., Krupp, G., Gough, S. et al. The RNA required in the first step of chlorophyll biosynthesis is a chloroplast glutamate tRNA. Nature 322, 281–284 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1038/322281a0

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