Chiral-Selective Aminoacylation of an RNA Minihelix
- 27 August 2004
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science
- Vol. 305 (5688), 1253
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1099141
Abstract
Amino acids in natural proteins have a chiral, asymmetric center at the α carbon that is of the L -configuration. The sugar backbone of natural RNAs are also homochiral, but of the D -configuration. Because protein synthesis requires the aminoacylation of RNA, it is this step that could have provided chiral selectivity. Here we show that an RNA minihelix was aminoacylated by an aminoacyl-phosphate- D -oligonucleotide with a clear preference for L - as opposed to D -amino acids. A mirror-image RNA system showed the opposite selectivity. These results suggest the possibility that the selection of L -amino acids for proteins was determined by the stereochemistry of RNA.Keywords
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