Mechanism of discrimination of natural proteinogenic and nonproteinogenic amino acids in class IA aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases

Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases catalyze binding of amino acids to the 3'-end of tRNA in a 2-step reaction: the first step is activation of amino acid with ATP to form aminoacyl-adenylate, and in the second step the activated amino acid is transferred to tRNA's 3'-end. Structural similarity of the amino acid substrates and the required accuracy of the aminoacylation reaction directed the development of…