On the classes of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases, amino acids and the genetic code.

The division of the aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases in two classes is compared with a division of the amino acids in two classes, obtained from the AAIndex databank by a principal component analysis. The division of the enzymes in Classes I and II follows to a great extent a division in the chemical and biological properties of their cognate amino acids. Furthermore, the phylogenetic trees of Classes I and II enzymes are highly correlated with dendrograms obtained for their cognate amino acids by using the indices in the AAIndex database. We argue that the evolution of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases was determined by the characteristics of their corresponding amino acids. We interpret these results considering models for the origin and evolution of the genetic code in which an initial version, containing fewer amino acids, was modified by the incorporation of new amino acids following duplication and divergence of previous synthetases and tRNA molecules.