tRNA fragments in human health and disease

Paul Anderson; Pavel Ivanov

doi:10.1016/j.febslet.2014.09.001

tRNA fragments in human health and disease

FEBS Lett. 2014 Nov 28;588(23):4297-304. doi: 10.1016/j.febslet.2014.09.001. Epub 2014 Sep 16.

Authors

Paul Anderson¹, Pavel Ivanov²

Affiliations

¹ Division of Rheumatology, Immunology, and Allergy, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Electronic address: panderson@rics.bwh.harvard.edu.
² Division of Rheumatology, Immunology, and Allergy, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Electronic address: pivanov@rics.bwh.harvard.edu.

Abstract

Transfer RNA (tRNA) is traditionally considered to be an adaptor molecule that helps ribosomes to decode messenger RNA (mRNA) and synthesize protein. Recent studies have demonstrated that tRNAs also serve as a major source of small non-coding RNAs that possess distinct and varied functions. These tRNA fragments are heterogeneous in size, nucleotide composition, biogenesis and function. Here we describe multiple roles that tRNA fragments play in cell physiology and discuss their relevance to human health and disease.

Keywords: Angiogenin; Apoptosis; RNA processing; Stress; Transfer RNA; tRNA-derived fragment.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Animals
Cells / cytology
Cells / metabolism
Cells / pathology
Disease / genetics*
Health*
Humans
RNA, Transfer / chemistry*
RNA, Transfer / genetics*

Substances

RNA, Transfer

Grants and funding

R01 CA168872/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States