Sequence, structure and evolutionary relationships between class 2 aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases: an update.

The seven class 2 aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases that are alpha 2 dimers have previously been divided by sequence homology into class 2a (seryl-, threonyl-, prolyl- and histidyl-) and class 2b (aspartyl-, asparaginyl- and lysyl-). It has been more difficult to classify the glycyl-, phenylalanyl- and alanyl-tRNA synthetases which have different subunit stoichiometries and which did not apparently contain all three canonical class 2 motifs. New sequence and structural information relating to the three problematic synthetases will be discussed permitting a step forward to be taken in the understanding of the evolutionary relationships between the class 2 synthetases.