The reduction of specific uridines to dihydrouridine is one of the most common modifications in tRNA. Increased levels of the dihydrouridine modification are associated with cancer. Dihydrouridine synthases (Dus) from different subfamilies selectively reduce distinct uridines, located at spatially unique positions of folded tRNA, into dihydrouridine. Because the catalytic center of all Dus enzymes is conserved, it is unclear how the same protein fold can be reprogrammed to ensure that nucleotides exposed at spatially distinct faces of tRNA can be accommodated in the same active site. We show that the Escherichia coli DusC is specific toward U16 of tRNA. Unexpectedly, crystal structures of DusC complexes with tRNA Phe and tRNATrp show that Dus subfamilies that selectively modify U16 or U20 in tRNA adopt identical folds but bind their respective tRNA substrates in an almost reverse orientation that differs by a 160°rotation. The tRNA docking orientation appears to be guided by subfamily-specific clusters of amino acids ("binding signatures") together with differences in the shape of the positively charged tRNA-binding surfaces. tRNA orientations are further constrained by positional differences between the C-terminal "recognition" domains. The exquisite substrate specificity of Dus enzymes is therefore controlled by a relatively simple mechanism involving major reorientation of the whole tRNA molecule. Such reprogramming of the enzymatic specificity appears to be a unique evolutionary solution for altering tRNA recognition by the same protein fold.dihydrouridine synthase | tRNA modification | protein-RNA interaction | substrate specificity | X-ray crystallography D uring the posttranscriptional maturation of tRNA, about 10% of its nucleosides are enzymatically modified at specific positions (1). Altered levels of tRNA modification have been linked to several disorders including cancers (2-8). One of the most common modified nucleosides, dihydrouridine, is produced by reduction of the C5-C6 double bond in uridine. The resulting nonplanar base cannot form stabilizing stacking interactions with neighboring nucleotides and favors the C2′-endo ribose conformation (9). In Escherichia coli, dihydrouridine is commonly found at positions 16, 17, 20, and 20a of the D loop of tRNA (Fig. S1A). The formation of dihydrouridine is catalyzed by dihydrouridine synthases (Dus) (10-12). Different Dus subfamilies display specificity toward distinct subsets of target uridines in tRNA. Whereas the specificity of the four Saccharomyces cerevisiae Dus enzymes has been established (13), little is known about the three E. coli Dus proteins (DusA, DusB, and DusC), except that the specificities are nonoverlapping and that DusA modifies U20 (10). The mechanistic basis of the exquisite substrate specificity of Dus is an intriguing problem because the target uridines are exposed at spatially distinct faces of folded tRNAs, and yet all Dus subfamilies are predicted to adopt the same fold with highly conserved active-site residues (14-16).A stru...