Lack of Discrimination Against Non-proteinogenic Amino Acid Norvaline by Elongation Factor Tu from Escherichia coli

The GTP-bound form of elongation factor Tu (EF-Tu) brings aminoacylated tRNAs (aa-tRNA) to the A-site of the ribosome. EF-Tu binds all cognate elongator aa-tRNAs with highly similar affinities, and its weaker or tighter binding of misacylated tRNAs may discourage their participation in translation. Norvaline (Nva) is a non-proteinogenic amino acid that is activated and transferred to tRNA(Leu) by leucyl-tRNA synthetase (LeuRS). No notable accumulation of Nva-tRNA(Leu) has been observed in vitro, because of the efficient post-transfer hydrolytic editing activity of LeuRS. However, incorporation of norvaline into proteins in place of leucine does occur under certain conditions in vivo. Here we show that EF-Tu binds Nva-tRNA(Leu) and Leu-tRNA(Leu) with similar affinities, and that Nva-tRNA(Leu) and Leu-tRNA(Leu) dissociate from EF-Tu at comparable rates. The inability of EF-Tu to discriminate against norvaline may have driven evolution of highly efficient LeuRS editing as the main quality control mechanism against misincorporation of norvaline into proteins.