Studies on lysine, glutamine and glutamic acid tRNAs from Drosophila

The minor bases present in the family of Drosophila tRNAs recognising codons of the type NAA or NAG have been studied. Under standard aminoacylating conditions, the acceptor activities of BrCN-treated tRNA-Lys-5 tRNA-Glu-4 and tRNA-G1n-4 were completely eliminated, suggesting the presence of 2-thiouridine derivatives. The two major lysine tRNA species (tRNA-Lys-2 and tRNA-Lys-5) were purified and their nucleoside content determined both directly and by the tritium derivative technique. Both tRNAs contain 1-methyladenosine, N-2-dimethylguanosine, 7-methylguanosine, 5-methylcytidine, pseudouridine and dihydrouridine, and tRNA-Lys-5 contains 1-methylguanosine. Neither species contain ribothymidine, although both may contain 2'-O-methyl ribothymidine. A nucleoside with ultraviolet spectral properties similar to N-4-acetylcytidine was found in tRNA-Lys-5 and a nucleoside with chromatographic properties the same as N-[9-beta-D-ribofuranosyl)-purin-6-yl-carbamoyl] threonine was found in tRNA-Lys-2. A 2-thiouridine derivative was not found in tRNA-Lys-5 using these chromatographic techniques.