A total rate equation was used to calculate the discrimination of valine by the isoleucyl-tRNA synthetase from Escherichia coli. The PPi present in the cell makes the backward reaction or the pyrophosphorolysis of the E .possible. If the E . Ile-AMP has been corrected for wrong aminoacyl adenylation by the pretransfer proofreading, the pyrophosphorolysis rapidly equilibrates the corrected E . Ile-AMp with E . and thus spoils the effect of the proofreading. The loss of the corrected species is avoided if there is a barrier (perhaps conformational) formed by a slow reaction step between the noncorrected E . l'e-AMP and the corrected *E$&Mp. If such a slow conformational change exists, the increase in accuracy from the pretransfer proofreading would be benefitial, and, in addition, the PPi increases the accuracy by optimizing the initial discrimination of the wrong amino acid.The activation of amino acids by the aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases produces PP,, which is able to bind to the aminoacyl adenylate in the reversc reaction [I]. Both the activation and the pyrophosphorolysis are rapid reactions [2] which allow an equilibrium at this step in the presence of PPi. The PPi strongly shifts the equilibrium from the aminoacyl adenylate intermediates towards the start of the total reaction. PP, is decomposed by the inorganic pyrophosphatase present in all living cells. The pyrophosphatase, however, does not destroy all PP,, but a moderate concentration is maintained. The PP, concentration in Escherichia roli cells, thoroughly studied in this laboratory [3 -51, is about 0.5 mM and is not changed very much by varying the conditions.The amino acid specificity of the aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases has been described to be increased in four steps [6]. Two initial discrimination steps occur before the activation reaction, the pretransfer proofreading works at the aminoacyl adenylate step and the posttransfer proofreading at the aminoacyl-tRNA step (Eqn 1).The effect of PP, on the aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase reaction has already been considered in two earlier papers on this work [7, 81. The present work uses the kinetic equations derived in the preceding paper [9]. The roles of PP, in the initial discriminations and pretransfer proofreading were calculated.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
EquationsThe rate equations were derived as suggested by Cha [lo] and as described in detail in the preceding paper [9]. The reaction scheme was divided in separate rapid equilibrium segments. Since the amino acid specificity is to be examined, the binding reaction for the amino acid makes one boundary of the segments, and the different amino acids, isoleucine and valine, have their own segments (Eqn 2).