From End to End: tRNA Editing at 5'- and 3'-Terminal Positions

International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Heike Betat¹  Yicheng Long²  Jane E. Jackman²  Mario Mörl¹ 

[1] Institute for Biochemistry, University of Leipzig, Brüderstraße 34, 04103 Leipzig, Germany; E-Mail:;Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Center for RNA Biology and Ohio State Biochemistry Program, the Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA; E-Mails:

关键词: tRNA;    editing;    tRNA processing;    tRNA maturation;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijms151223975

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

During maturation, tRNA molecules undergo a series of individual processing steps, ranging from exo- and endonucleolytic trimming reactions at their 5'- and 3'-ends, specific base modifications and intron removal to the addition of the conserved 3'-terminal CCA sequence. Especially in mitochondria, this plethora of processing steps is completed by various editing events, where base identities at internal positions are changed and/or nucleotides at 5'- and 3'-ends are replaced or incorporated. In this review, we will focus predominantly on the latter reactions, where a growing number of cases indicate that these editing events represent a rather frequent and widespread phenomenon. While the mechanistic basis for 5'- and 3'-end editing differs dramatically, both reactions represent an absolute requirement for generating a functional tRNA. Current in vivo and in vitro model systems support a scenario in which these highly specific maturation reactions might have evolved out of ancient promiscuous RNA polymerization or quality control systems.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.