title: tRNAs: new tricks from old dogs.
abstract: tRNA biology has lately seen a revival with the discovery of tRNA cleavage products as mediators of stress responses. In this issue of The EMBO Journal, Blanco et al now report that tRNA methylation, by protecting from cleavage, is relevant for normal brain development. The versatility of tRNA is further emphasized by a recent study in Cell that uncovered differential expression of tRNAs as a means to accustom codon usage bias to the needs in proliferating versus differentiating cells.
authors.affiliation: Helmholtz Junior Research Group "Posttranscriptional Control of Gene Expression" German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and Center for Molecular Biology of the University of Heidelberg (ZMBH) DKFZ-ZMBH Alliance, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Georg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Stoecklin
authors.affiliation: Helmholtz-University-Junior Research Group "Molecular RNA Biology & Cancer" German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and Institute of Pathology University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Sven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Diederichs
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006801:Humans; D008780:Methyltransferases / Q000378:metabolism*; D009422:Nervous System Diseases / Q000151:congenital* / Q000473:pathology*; D012343:RNA, Transfer / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D012343:RNA, Transfer; D008780:Methyltransferases; C513146:Misu protein, mouse; C515610:NSUN2 protein, human