Tryptophanyl tRNA Synthetase 2, Mitochondrial (WARS2)

Two forms of tryptophanyl-tRNA synthetase exist, a cytoplasmic form, named WARS, and a mitochondrial form, named WARS2. Tryptophanyl-tRNA synthetase, mitochondrial is the mitochondrial tryptophanyl-tRNA synthetase. Two alternative transcripts encoding different isoforms have been described.By homology searching of an EST database, Martinez-Dominguez et al. (1998) identified a WARS2 EST. The deduced WARS2 protein contains a signal peptide for mitochondrial import. WARS2 is highly homologous to bacterial tryptophanyl-tRNA synthetases.The deduced 360-amino acid protein has an N-terminal mitochondrial targeting signal that is cleaved after residue 18. WARS2 has characteristics of a class I aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase, including a classical Rossmann fold.