Relative efficiency of anticodons in reading the valine codons during protein synthesis in vitro

Abstract

Using a protein synthesizing in vitro system programmed with MS 2-RNA, the relative efficiency (in the presence of each other) of valine tRNAs with the anticodons U*AC (U* represents 5-oxyacetic acid uridine monophosphate), GAC, and IAC to read the valine codons was investigated. An anticodon which can read all three positions of the codon according to the rules of Watson-Crick base-pairing and the wobble hypothesis is an order of magnitude more efficient than an anticodon which misreads the codon by reading only the first two positions and presumably disregards the third nucleotide of the codon. There are two seeming exceptions to this behavior: the anticodon U*AC reads the codon GUU quite efficiently and IAC is as effective as U*AC in reading the codon GUG. The significance of these exceptions is evaluated with respect to the organization and evolution of the genetic code.