Specific mistranslation in hisT mutants of Escherichia coli.

Certain strains of Escherichia coli mistranslate at very high frequencies when starved for asparagine or histidine. This mistranslation is the result of misreading events on the ribosome. The introduction of a hisT mutation into such a strain decreases the frequency of mistranslation during histidine starvation but not during asparagine starvation. The most likely explanation is that the replacement of the pseudouridine residue in the anticodon loop of glutamine specific transfer ribonucleic acid by uridine in hisT mutants leads to an increase in fidelity of transfer ribonucleic acid function. The hisT gene in Escherichia coli has also been more accurately mapped, giving the gene order purF-hisT-aroC-fadL-dsdA.