Transfer RNA (tRNA)

Transfer RNA (tRNA) carries individual amino acids into the ribosome for assembly into the growing polypeptide chain. The tRNA molecules contain 70 to 80 nucleotides and fold into a characteristic cloverleaf structure. Specialized tRNAs exist for each of the 20 amino acids needed for protein synthesis, and in many cases more than one tRNA for each amino acid is present. The nucleotide sequence is converted into a protein sequence by translating each three-base sequence (called a codon) with a specific protein. The 61 codons used to code amino acids can be read by many fewer than 61 distinct tRNAs (as described in the section Translation). In E. coli a total of 40 different tRNAs are used to translate the 61 codons. The amino acids are loaded onto the tRNAs by specialized enzymes called aminoacyl tRNA synthetases, usually with one synthetase for each amino acid. However, in some organisms, less than the full complement of 20 synthetases are required because some amino acids, such as glutamine and asparagine, can be synthesized on their respective tRNAs. All tRNAs adopt similar structures because they all have to interact with the same sites on the ribosome.