title: Surveillance and cleavage of eukaryotic tRNAs.
abstract: Beyond their central role in protein synthesis, transfer RNAs (tRNAs) have many other crucial functions. This includes various roles in the regulation of gene expression, stress responses, metabolic processes and priming reverse transcription. In the RNA world, tRNAs are, with ribosomal RNAs, among the most stable molecules. Nevertheless, they are not eternal. As key elements of cell function, tRNAs need to be continuously quality-controlled. Two tRNA surveillance pathways have been identified. They act on hypo-modified or mis-processed pre-tRNAs and on mature tRNAs lacking modifications. A short overview of these two pathways will be presented here. Furthermore, while the exoribonucleases acting in these pathways ultimately lead to complete tRNA degradation, numerous tRNA-derived fragments (tRFs) are present within a cell. These cleavage products of tRNAs now potentially emerge as a new class of small non-coding RNAs (sncRNAs) and are suspected to have important regulatory functions. The tRFs are evolutionarily widespread and created by cleavage at different positions by various endonucleases. Here, we review our present knowledge on the biogenesis and function of tRFs in various organisms.
authors.affiliation: Institut de Biologie Moléculaire des Plantes, CNRS, Associated with University of Strasbourg, 12 rue du Général Zimmer, F-67084 Strasbourg Cedex, France. cyrille.megel@ibmp-cnrs.unistra.fr.
authors.forename: Cyrille
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Megel
authors.affiliation: Institut de Biologie Moléculaire des Plantes, CNRS, Associated with University of Strasbourg, 12 rue du Général Zimmer, F-67084 Strasbourg Cedex, France. geoffrey.morelle@ibmp-cnrs.unistra.fr.
authors.forename: Geoffrey
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Morelle
authors.affiliation: Institut de Biologie Moléculaire des Plantes, CNRS, Associated with University of Strasbourg, 12 rue du Général Zimmer, F-67084 Strasbourg Cedex, France. stephanie.lalande@ibmp-cnrs.unistra.fr.
authors.forename: Stéphanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lalande
authors.affiliation: Institut de Biologie Moléculaire des Plantes, CNRS, Associated with University of Strasbourg, 12 rue du Général Zimmer, F-67084 Strasbourg Cedex, France. anne-marie.duchene@ibmp-cnrs.unistra.fr.
authors.forename: Anne-Marie
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Duchêne
authors.affiliation: Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology, the University of Western Australia, Crawley WA6009, Australia. ian.small@uwa.edu.au.
authors.forename: Ian
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Small
authors.affiliation: Institut de Biologie Moléculaire des Plantes, CNRS, Associated with University of Strasbourg, 12 rue du Général Zimmer, F-67084 Strasbourg Cedex, France. laurence.drouard@ibmp-cnrs.unistra.fr.
authors.forename: Laurence
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Maréchal-Drouard
mesh_terms: D004720:Endonucleases / Q000378:metabolism; D005057:Eukaryotic Cells / Q000378:metabolism*; D020871:RNA Stability; D012343:RNA, Transfer / Q000378:metabolism*; D022661:RNA, Untranslated / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D022661:RNA, Untranslated; D012343:RNA, Transfer; D004720:Endonucleases