According to the clover leaf model, the single chain of tRNA is folded on itself to form five arms. As a result of this folding, the 3′ end and 5′ end lie adjacent to each other. Each arm consists of a basal stalk, and a loop.
The double stranded stalks show the typical base pairing. There could be an exceptional mismatch. The loops do not have base pairing. One of the arms which does not have a loop is called the acceptor as this is the binding site for amino acids. The second arm is called the DNA arm.
This has a synthetase site which recognises the amino acid activating enzyme. The fourth is a variable arm; it has a stem, but the loop may or may not be present. The TT arm has a ribosome recognition site.