Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014;1(2):8.

Transfer RNA as a source of small functional RNA

Megumi Shigematsu, Shozo Honda, Yohei Kirino

Transfer RNA as a source of small functional RNA

Megumi Shigematsu et al. J Mol Biol Mol Imaging. 2014.

Abstract

Since their discovery in the 1950s, transfer RNAs (tRNAs) have been best known as adapter molecules that play a central role in translating genetic information. However, recent biochemical and bioinformatic evidence has led to a previously unexpected conceptual consensus that tRNAs are not always end products; they further serve as a source of small functional RNAs. In many organisms, specific tRNA fragments are produced from mature tRNAs or their precursor transcripts not as random degradation products, but as functional molecules involved in many biological processes beyond translation. In this review, we summarize recent studies of tRNA fragments that have provided new insights into tRNA biology by examining the molecular functions of tRNA fragments and proteins with which they interact.

Keywords: Argonaute; tRF; tRNA; tRNA fragment; tRNA half.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(A) tRNA fragments derived from precursor or mature tRNAs and their processing enzymes. (B) Reported molecular functions of tRNA fragments.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Esteller M. Non-coding RNAs in human disease. Nat Rev Genet. 2011;12(12):861–74. - PubMed
    1. Farazi TA, Juranek SA, Tuschl T. The growing catalog of small RNAs and their association with distinct Argonaute/Piwi family members. Development. 2008;135(7):1201–14. - PubMed
    1. Ghildiyal M, Zamore PD. Small silencing RNAs: an expanding universe. Nat Rev Genet. 2009;10(2):94–108. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kim VN, Han J, Siomi MC. Biogenesis of small RNAs in animals. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2009;10(2):126–39. - PubMed
    1. Kozomara A, Griffiths-Jones S. miRBase: annotating high confidence microRNAs using deep sequencing data. Nucleic Acids Res. 2014;42(Database issue):D68–73. - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources