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Mutation and “Reversion” at the leu-5 locus of Neurospora and its effect on the cytoplasmic and mitochondrial leucyl-tRNA synthetases

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Abstract

The Neurospora mitochondrial and cytoplasmic leucyl-tRNA synthetases differ from each other not only in location but also with respect to tRNA specificity, chromatographic mobility, leucine affinity, and sensitivity to phosphate inhibition. Strain 45208t, which bears a mutation in the leu-5 cistron, produces a cytoplasmic enzyme with reduced affinity for leucine and little if any mitochondrial enzyme activity. “Reversion” of the 45208t mutation was found to result not only in the reappearance of mitochondrial leucyl-tRNA synthetase activity but also in the production of a cytoplasmic synthetase with an affinity for leucine intermediate between mutant and wild type. The reversion studied, then, did not involve a return to the wild-type nucleotide sequence in the leu-5 cistron. The results obtained lend further support to the conclusion that the leu-5 cistron is involved in specifying, at least in part, the structure of both the cytoplasmic and mitochondrial leucyl-tRNA synthetases, despite the physical and functional differences between them.

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Author notes

  1. Claire Ovrut Weeks

    Present address: Department of Biochemistry, University of Leicester, Leicester, England

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Genetics, Department of Biochemistry, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina

    Claire Ovrut Weeks & S. R. Gross

Authors
  1. Claire Ovrut Weeks
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  2. S. R. Gross
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Research was supported in part by National Science Foundation Grant 27575.

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Weeks, C.O., Gross, S.R. Mutation and “Reversion” at the leu-5 locus of Neurospora and its effect on the cytoplasmic and mitochondrial leucyl-tRNA synthetases. Biochem Genet 5, 505–516 (1971). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00485668

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00485668

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