The making and breaking of tRNAs by ribonucleases

Jessica J H Elder; Ry Papadopoulos; Cassandra K Hayne; Robin E Stanley

doi:10.1016/j.tig.2024.03.007

The making and breaking of tRNAs by ribonucleases

Trends Genet. 2024 Apr 18:S0168-9525(24)00069-6. doi: 10.1016/j.tig.2024.03.007. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Jessica J H Elder¹, Ry Papadopoulos², Cassandra K Hayne³, Robin E Stanley⁴

Affiliations

¹ Signal Transduction Laboratory, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA.
² Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA; Department of Chemistry, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
³ Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA. Electronic address: chayne@uchicago.edu.
⁴ Signal Transduction Laboratory, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA. Electronic address: robin.stanley@nih.gov.

PMID: 38641471
DOI: 10.1016/j.tig.2024.03.007

Abstract

Ribonucleases (RNases) play important roles in supporting canonical and non-canonical roles of tRNAs by catalyzing the cleavage of the tRNA phosphodiester backbone. Here, we highlight how recent advances in cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), protein structure prediction, reconstitution experiments, tRNA sequencing, and other studies have revealed new insight into the nucleases that process tRNA. This represents a very diverse group of nucleases that utilize distinct mechanisms to recognize and cleave tRNA during different stages of a tRNA's life cycle including biogenesis, fragmentation, surveillance, and decay. In this review, we provide a synthesis of the structure, mechanism, regulation, and modes of tRNA recognition by tRNA nucleases, along with open questions for future investigation.

Keywords: ribonuclease; tRNA; tRNA decay; tRNA fragments; tRNA processing.

Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Publication types

Review