cd01889

SelB, the dedicated elongation factor for delivery of selenocysteinyl-tRNA to the ribosome; SelB is an elongation factor needed for the co-translational incorporation of selenocysteine. Selenocysteine is coded by a UGA stop codon in combination with a specific downstream mRNA hairpin. In bacteria, the C-terminal part of SelB recognizes this hairpin, while the N-terminal part binds GTP and tRNA in analogy with elongation factor Tu (EF-Tu). It specifically recognizes the selenocysteine charged tRNAsec, which has a UCA anticodon, in an EF-Tu like manner. This allows insertion of selenocysteine at in-frame UGA stop codons. In E. coli SelB binds GTP, selenocysteyl-tRNAsec and a stem-loop structure immediately downstream of the UGA codon (the SECIS sequence). The absence of active SelB prevents the participation of selenocysteyl-tRNAsec in translation. Archaeal and animal mechanisms of selenocysteine incorporation are more complex. Although the SECIS elements have different secondary structures and conserved elements between archaea and eukaryotes, they do share a common feature. Unlike in E. coli, these SECIS elements are located in the 3' UTRs. This group contains eukaryotic SelBs and some from archaea.