Analysis of genomic tRNA revealed presence of novel genomic features in cyanobacterial tRNA

Tapan Kumar Mohanta; Dhananjay Yadav; Abdullatif Khan; Abeer Hashem; Elsayed Fathi Abd Allah; Ahmed Al-Harrasi

doi:10.1016/j.sjbs.2019.06.004

Analysis of genomic tRNA revealed presence of novel genomic features in cyanobacterial tRNA

Saudi J Biol Sci. 2020 Jan;27(1):124-133. doi: 10.1016/j.sjbs.2019.06.004. Epub 2019 Jun 8.

Authors

Tapan Kumar Mohanta¹, Dhananjay Yadav², Abdullatif Khan¹, Abeer Hashem^{3

4}, Elsayed Fathi Abd Allah⁵, Ahmed Al-Harrasi¹

Affiliations

¹ Natural and Medical Sciences Research Center, University of Nizwa, Nizwa 616, Oman.
² Dept. of Medical Biotechnology, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan 38541, Republic of Korea.
³ Botany and Microbiology Department, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2460, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Mycology and Plant Disease Survey Department, Plant Pathology Research Institute, Agriculture Research Centre, Giza, Egypt.
⁵ Plant Production Department, College of Food and Agriculture Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2460, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

Transfer RNAs (tRNA) are important molecules that involved in protein translation machinery and acts as a bridge between the ribosome and codon of the mRNA. The study of tRNA is evolving considerably in the fields of bacteria, plants, and animals. However, detailed genomic study of the cyanobacterial tRNA is lacking. Therefore, we conducted a study of cyanobacterial tRNA from 61 species. Analysis revealed that; cyanobacteria contain thirty-six to seventy-eight tRNA gens per genome that encodes for 20 tRNA isotypes. The number of iso-acceptors (anti-codons) ranged from thirty-two to forty-three per genome. tRNA^Ile with anti-codon AAU, GAU, and UAU was reported to be absent from the genome of Gleocapsa PCC 73,106 and Xenococcus sp. PCC 7305. Instead, they were contained anti-codon CAU that is common to tRNA^Met and tRNA^Ile as well. The iso-acceptors ACA (tRNA^Cys), ACC (tRNA^Gly), AGA, ACU (tRNA^Ser), AAA (tRNA^Phe), AGG (tRNA^Pro), AAC (tRNA^Val), GCG (tRNA^Arg), AUG (tRNA^His), and AUC (tRNA^Asp) were absent from the genome of cyanobacterial lineages studied so far. A few of the cyanobacterial species encode suppressor tRNAs, whereas none of the species were found to encode a selenocysteine iso-acceptor. Cyanobacterial species encode a few putative novel tRNAs whose functions are yet to be elucidated.

Keywords: A, adenine; Anti-codon; C, cytosine; Codon; Cyanobacteria; G, guanine; Iso-acceptors; Translation; U, uridine; tRNA; tRNA, transfer RNA; Ψ, pseudouridine.