An evolutionary ratchet leading to loss of elongation factors in eukaryotes.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The GTPase eEF1A is the eukaryotic factor responsible for the essential, universal function of aminoacyl-tRNA delivery to the ribosome. Surprisingly, eEF1A is not universally present in eukaryotes, being replaced by the paralog EFL independently in multiple lineages. The driving force behind this unusually frequent replacement is poorly understood.

Results

Through sequence searching of genomic and EST databases, we find a striking association of eEF1A replacement by EFL and loss of eEF1A's guanine exchange factor, eEF1Bα, suggesting that EFL is able to spontaneously recharge with GTP. Sequence conservation and homology modeling analyses indicate several sequence regions that may be responsible for EFL's lack of requirement for eEF1Bα.

Conclusions

We propose

SUBMITTER: Atkinson GC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3938643 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature