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PMID: 28335016 Published · ppublish English Journal Article

tRNA-derived small RNAs target transposable element transcripts.

Nucleic acids research ·Vol. 45 ·No. 9 ·2017-05-19 ·Pages 5142-5152

Martinez G, Choudury SG, Slotkin RK

Abstract

tRNA-derived RNA fragments (tRFs) are 18-26 nucleotide small RNAs that are not random degradation products, but are rather specifically cleaved from mature tRNA transcripts. Abundant in stressed or viral-infected cells, the function and potential targets of tRFs are not known. We identified that in the unstressed wild-type male gamete containing pollen of flowering plants, and analogous reproductive structure in non-flowering plant species, tRFs accumulate to high levels. In the reference plant Arabidopsis thaliana, tRFs are processed by Dicer-like 1 and incorporated into Argonaute1 (AGO1), akin to a microRNA. We utilized the fact that many plant small RNAs direct cleavage of their target transcripts to demonstrate that the tRF-AGO1 complex acts to specifically target and cleave endogenous transposable element (TE) mRNAs produced from transcriptionally active TEs. The data presented here demonstrate that tRFs are bona-fide regulatory microRNA-like small RNAs involved in the regulation of genome stability through the targeting of TE transcripts.

MeSH Terms
Arabidopsis/genetics Arabidopsis Proteins/metabolism Base Sequence DNA Transposable Elements/genetics MicroRNAs/metabolism Mutation/genetics Pollen/metabolism RNA, Messenger/genetics,metabolism RNA, Plant/genetics,metabolism RNA, Transfer/genetics,metabolism Reproducibility of Results
Chemicals
Arabidopsis Proteins DNA Transposable Elements MicroRNAs RNA, Messenger RNA, Plant RNA, Transfer
Authors & Affiliations
3 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Martinez German
Department of Molecular Genetics and Center for RNA Biology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, 43210 OH, USA. | Department of Plant Biology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Linnean Center of Plant Biology, 75007 Uppsala, Sweden.
Choudury Sarah G
Department of Molecular Genetics and Center for RNA Biology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, 43210 OH, USA. | Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology Graduate Program, The Ohio State University, Columbus, 43210 OH, USA. | Center for RNA Biology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, 43210 OH, USA.
Slotkin R Keith
Department of Molecular Genetics and Center for RNA Biology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, 43210 OH, USA. | Center for RNA Biology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, 43210 OH, USA.
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Article Info
Journal
Nucleic acids research
Abbr.
Nucleic Acids Res
ISSN
1362-4962
DOI
10.1093/nar/gkx103
Published
2017-05-19
Pages
5142-5152
Language
English
Region
England
NLM ID
0411011
PMCID
PMC5605234
Subset
IM
Grants
NIAID NIH HHS · R21 AI127582 · United States
NIGMS NIH HHS · T32 GM086252 · United States
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkx103 PMC Full Text View journal details
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