tRNA cleavage is a conserved response to oxidative stress in eukaryotes

Debrah M. Thompson; Cheng Lu; Pamela J. Green; Roy Parker

doi:10.1261/rna.1232808

tRNA cleavage is a conserved response to oxidative stress in eukaryotes

¹Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA
²Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA
³Delaware Biotechnology Institute, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware 19711, USA

Abstract

Recent results have identified a diversity of small RNAs in a wide range of organisms. In this work, we demonstrate that Saccharomyces cerevisiae contains a small RNA population consisting primarily of tRNA halves and rRNA fragments. Both 5′ and 3′ fragments of tRNAs are detectable by Northern blot analysis, suggesting a process of endonucleolytic cleavage. tRNA and rRNA fragment production in yeast is most pronounced during oxidative stress conditions, especially during entry into stationary phase. Similar tRNA fragments are also observed in human cell lines and in plants during oxidative stress. These results demonstrate that tRNA cleavage is a conserved aspect of the response to oxidative stress.

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Footnotes

Reprint requests to: Roy Parker, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA, or Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA; e-mail: rrparker{at}email.arizona.edu; fax: (520) 621-4524.
Article published online ahead of print. Article and publication date are athttp://www.rnajournal.org/cgi/doi/10.1261/rna.1232808.
- Received June 14, 2008.
- Accepted June 30, 2008.
Freely available online through the open access option.