Project description:tRNA-derived small RNA including tRNA-derived fragments (tRFs) and tRNA halves (tiRNAs) plays significant roles in the various molecular mechanisms that underlie certain human diseases. of the generation of tRFs/tiRNAs and their potential roles during Dengue virus (DENV) infection is not yet known. Here, we have performed small RNA sequencing to identify the generation and alterations in tRF expression profiles of DENV infected Huh7 cells. Our results suggest that 733 tiRNAs/tRFs were found to be differentially expressed during DENV infection. Interestingly, 3’tRF population were found to be upregulated and i-tRF population were found to be downregulated. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) were performed to analyze the impact of differentially expressed tRFs on DENV pathogenesis. Our results suggest the significant involvement in transcriptional regulation via RNA polymerase II promoter and metabolic pathways. Overall, our study contributes significantly to our understanding of the roles played by tRFs in the complex dynamics of DENV infection.
Project description:Here, we apply tRNA-seq and YAMAT-seq to profile the expressions of tRFs and tRNAs in plants. We provide a high-quality expression atlas of tRFs and tRNAs in Arabidopsis and rice, and uncover complex tRF population and the dynamic expressions of tRNA genes in plants.
Project description:tRNA related fragments(tRF) and tRNA halves(tiRNA) are novel class of short non-coding RNA derived from tRNAs. Using RNA sequencing, we evaluated the tRFs/tiRNAs expression profiles in relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma and multiple myeloma patients. Bioinformatics analyses indicated that tRFs/tiRNAs may be involved in the progression and drug-resistance of multiple myeloma.
Project description:Background: As couples struggle with infertility and livestock producers wish to rapidly improve genetic merit in their herd, assisted reproductive technologies (ART) have become increasingly popular in human medicine as well as the livestock industry. Utilizing ART can cause an increased risk of congenital overgrowth syndromes, such as Large Offspring Syndrome (LOS) in ruminants. A dysregulation of transcripts has been observed in bovine fetuses with LOS, which is suggested to be a cause of the phenotype. Our recent study identified variations in tRNA expression in LOS individuals, leading us to hypothesize that variations in tRNA expression can influence the availability of their processed regulatory products, tRNA-derived fragments (tRFs). Due to their resemblance in size to microRNAs, studies suggest that tRFs target mRNA transcripts and regulate gene expression. Thus, we have sequenced small RNA isolated from skeletal muscle and liver of day 105 bovine fetuses to elucidate the mechanisms contributing to LOS. Moreover, we have utilized our previously generated tRNA sequencing data to analyze the contribution of tRNA availability to tRF abundance. Results: 22,289 and 7,737 unique tRFs were predicted in the liver and muscle tissue respectively. The greatest number of reads originated from 5′ tRFs in muscle and 5′ halves in liver. In addition, mitochondrial (MT) and nuclear derived tRF expression was tissue-specific with most MT-tRFs and nuclear tRFs derived from LysUUU and iMetCAU in muscle, and AsnGUU and GlyGCC in liver. Despite variation in tRF abundance within treatment groups, we identified differentially expressed (DE) tRFs across Control-AI, ART-Normal, and ART-LOS groups with the most DE tRFs between ART-Normal and ART-LOS groups. Many DE tRFs target transcripts enriched in pathways related to growth and development in the muscle and tumor development in the liver. Finally, we found positive correlation coefficients between tRNA availability and tRF expression in muscle (R = 0.47) and liver (0.6). Conclusion: Our results highlight the dysregulation of tRF expression and its regulatory roles in LOS. These tRFs were found to target both imprinted and non-imprinted genes in muscle as well as genes linked to tumor development in the liver. Furthermore, we found that tRNA transcription is a highly modulated event that plays a part in the biogenesis of tRFs. This study is the first to investigate the relationship between tRNA and tRF expression in combination with ART-induced LOS.
Project description:tRNA related RNA fragments (tRFs), also known as tRNA-derived RNAs (tdRNAs), are abundant small RNAs reported to be associated with Argonaute proteins, yet their function is unclear. We show that endogenous 18 nucleotide tRFs derived from the 3' ends of tRNAs (tRF-3) post-transcriptionally repress genes in HEK293T cells in culture. tRF-3 levels increase upon parental tRNA overexpression. This represses target genes with a sequence complementary to the tRF-3 in the 3' UTR. The tRF-3-mediated repression is Dicer-independent, Argonaute-dependent, and the targets are recognized by sequence complementarity. Furthermore, tRF-3:target mRNA pairs in the RNA induced silencing complex associate with GW182 proteins, known to repress translation and promote the degradation of target mRNAs. RNA-seq demonstrates that endogenous target genes are specifically decreased upon tRF-3 induction. Therefore, Dicer-independent tRF-3s, generated upon tRNA overexpression, repress genes post-transcriptionally through an Argonaute-GW182 containing RISC via sequence matches with target mRNAs.
Project description:Parental dietary conditions can influence the metabolic traits of offspring. In mice, paternal consumption of low protein diet alters cholesterol and lipid metabolism of progeny. Here, we examine RNA species expressed in male reproductive tissues of mice. Protein restriction leads to altered levels of multiple small RNAs in mature sperm, as well as throughout the male reproductive tract, with decreased levels of let-7 family members and increased levels of 5â?? fragments of tRNA-Gly isoacceptors. Intriguingly, tRNA fragments are scarce in the testis, but their levels increase in sperm during posttesticular maturation in the epididymis. We find that epididymosomes â?? extracellular vesicles which fuse with sperm during epididymal transit â?? exhibit RNA payloads closely matching those of mature sperm, and can deliver tRNA fragments to immature sperm in vitro both in mouse and in bull. Finally, we show that tRNA-Gly-GCC fragments play a role in repressing genes associated with the endogenous retroelement MERVL, both in ES cells and in preimplantation embryos. Our results shed light on small RNA biogenesis during post-testicular sperm maturation, and link tRNA fragments to regulation of endogenous retroelements active in the early embryo. E14 mESCs were transfected with LNA-containing oligos antisense to tRF-GG or GFP-esiRNA as control, then either total RNA was isolated or 80S ribosomes were isolated from Rnase-digested whole cell lysate, and footprints between 26-32nt were collected for ribosome profiling library construction using a kit-free protocol based on Heyer et al. 2015 NAR.
Project description:To identify tRNA fragments regulated by angiogenin (ANG, Rnase 5), we sequenced 15-50nt small RNAs upon ANG overexpression and ANG knockout.
Project description:Transfer RNA (tRNA)-derived fragments (tRF) are emerging small noncoding (nc) RNAs that, while commonly altered in cancer, have poorly defined roles in tumorigenesis. Here we show that pseudouridylation (Ψ) of a stem-cell-enriched tRF subtype, mTOG, selectively inhibits malignant protein synthesis programs, thereby promoting engraftment and differentiation of myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPC). Building on evidence that mTOG-Ψ target the polyadenylate-binding protein cytoplasmic 1 (PABPC1), we employed HDX-MS to reveal critical interactions between mTOG and functional RNA-recognition motif (RRM) domains in PABPC1. Mechanistically, this hinders the recruitment of the translational co-activator PABPC1-interacting protein 1 (PAIP1) and strongly represses translation of transcripts sharing 5’UTR pyrimidine-enriched sequences (PES), including 5’ terminal oligopyrimidine tracts (TOP) that encode protein machinery components, and are frequently altered in cancer. Significantly, mTOG dysregulation leads to aberrantly increased 5’PES mRNA translation in malignant MDS-HSPC and is clinically associated with leukemic transformation and reduced patient survival. Taken together, these results define a critical role for tRF and Ψ in difficult-to-treat subsets of MDS characterized by high risk of progression to acute myeloid leukemia.
Project description:Pseudouridylation (Ψ) is the most abundant and widespread type of RNA epigenetic modification in living organisms; however, the biological role of Ψ remains poorly understood. Here, we show that a Ψ-driven posttranscriptional program steers translation control to impact stem cell commitment during early embryogenesis. Mechanistically, the Ψ ‘writer’ PUS7 modifies and activates a network of tRNA-derived fragments (tRFs) targeting the translation initiation complex. PUS7 inactivation in embryonic stem cells impairs tRF-mediated translational regulation leading to increased protein biosynthesis and abnormal germ layer specification. Remarkably, dysregulation of PUS7 and tRFs in myeloid malignancies associates with altered translation rates, suggesting a role of Ψ in leukemogenesis. Our findings unveil a critical function of Ψ in directing translational control in stem cells with important implications for human disease.
Project description:In this study, we discovered cytosolic and mitochondrial fragments resulting from tRNA and mt-tRNA cleavage, which may act as new regulators of cellular and metabolic functions. We selected the mt-tRF-LeuTAA fragment derived from a tRNA encoded by the mitochondrial genome for further investigation, as its level is reduced in the islets of diabetes-susceptible animal models, while being abundant in ß-cells. mt-tRF-LeuTAA fragment is derived from the cleavage of tRNA-LeuTAA encoded by the mitochondrial genome. We demonstrated that mt-tRF-LeuTAA acts as a key regulator of mitochondrial OXPHOS functions, mitochondrial membrane potential, the insulin secretory capacity of ß-cells, and the insulin sensitivity of myotube muscle cells. We sought to investigate the downstream mechanisms activated by this fragment. To gain a comprehensive understanding, we conducted proteomic analyses on rat islets with silenced mt-tRF-LeuTAA for 72 hours. Inhibiting mt-tRF-LeuTAA led to significant differential expression of 642 proteins, cut-off adjusted p ≤ 0.05. To further investigate the cellular rearrangement associated with the inhibition of mt-tRF-LeuTAA, we conducted enrichment analysis using Gene Ontology Molecular Function terms on mass spectrometry data. At the protein level, there was a significant enrichment of mitochondrial pathways, such as oxidoreductase activity, ATPase activity, hydrogen transport, NADH dehydrogenase activity, cytochrome-c oxidase activity, and oxygen transport. To elucidate the mechanisms by which mt-tRF-LeuTAA operates, we also conducted pull-down experiments in insulin-secreting INS832/13 cells, followed by mass spectrometry using 3'-biotinylated mimic sequence oligonucleotides of mt-tRF-LeuTAA. Our analysis unveiled interactions between mt-tRF-LeuTAA and 24 proteins, meeting the criteria of a fold change ≥ 6 and an adjusted p-value ≤ 0.05. Notably, among these proteins, 13 are localized within the mitochondria and play significant roles in mitochondrial oxidative functions. Some of these key proteins include Suclg2, Nme3, Sdha, Lrpprc, and Ndufa12. Pathway enrichment analysis of the binding partners associated with the mitochondrial fragment mt-tRF-LeuTAA indicates an over-representation of signaling pathways crucial to maintaining mitochondrial metabolism. These pathways include oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS), ROS-induced stress responses, the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, calcium homeostasis regulation, lipid metabolism, RNA splicing, and mitochondrial import, which all contribute fundamentally to the maintenance of mitochondrial metabolism. These findings collectively provide insights into the essential mechanisms underlining the functionality of mitochondrially-encoded tRNA-derived fragments with the view to sustaining mitochondrial metabolism.