tRNA synthetases are essential enzymes that are required for protein synthesis and evolutionary changes should be evident in their protein sequences.Our lab has found that extremophile organisms, like Halobacterium, have peptide insertions that confer increased stability to the tRNA synthetases under extreme conditions. To see if other potentially �extreme� organisms might have the same features, we used protein alignments and computer modeling to find tRNA synthetases that fit a similar pattern. We found a group of pathogenic organisms (Prevotella intermedia, Fusobacterium necrophorum, and Porphyromonas gingivalis) whose cysteinyl and arginyl-tRNA synthetases had peptide insertions around the active site of the enzymes. This leads us to conclude that peptide insertions may be an adaptation to their �extreme� environment. We are currently characterizing these enzymes in an attempt to discover a novel mechanism of inhibition, which may lead us to a novel therapy for this disease.

tRNA synthetases show “extreme” features in oral pathogens

245th National Meeting (2013)

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