title: Armless mitochondrial tRNAs in Enoplea (Nematoda).
abstract: The mitochondrial genome of metazoan animal typically encodes 22 tRNAs. Nematode mt-tRNAs normally lack the T-stem and instead feature a replacement loop. In the class Enoplea, putative mt-tRNAs that are even further reduced have been predicted to lack both the T- and the D-arm. Here we investigate these tRNA candidates in detail. Three lines of computational evidence support that they are indeed minimal functional mt-tRNAs: (1) the high level of conservation of both sequence and secondary structure, (2) the perfect preservation of the anticodons, and (3) the persistence of these sequence elements throughout several genome rearrangements that place them between different flanking genes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science, and Interdisciplinary Center for Bioinformatics, University of Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Jühling
authors.forename: Joern
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pütz
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Florentz
authors.forename: Peter F
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Stadler
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D054629:Genome, Mitochondrial / Q000502:physiology; D009348:Nematoda / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D012313:RNA / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D018510:RNA, Helminth / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D000077278:RNA, Mitochondrial; D012343:RNA, Transfer / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D018510:RNA, Helminth; D000077278:RNA, Mitochondrial; D012313:RNA; D012343:RNA, Transfer