Role of a 300-kilodalton nuclear complex in the maturation of Trypanosoma brucei initiator methionyl-tRNA.

ABSTRACT: tRNAs are transcribed as precursors containing 5' leader and 3' extensions that are removed by a series of posttranscriptional processing reactions to yield functional mature tRNAs. Here, we examined the maturation pathway of tRNA(Met) in Trypanosoma brucei, an early divergent unicellular eukaryote. We identified an approximately 300-kDa complex located in the nucleus of T. brucei that is required for trimming the 5' leader of initiator tRNA(Met) precursors. One of the subunits of the complex (T. brucei MT40 [TbMT40]) is a putative methyltransferase and a homolog of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Gcd14, which is essential for 1-methyladenosine modification in tRNAs. Down-regulation of TbMT40 by RNA interference resulted in the accumulation of precursor initiator tRNA(Met) containing 5' extension

SUBMITTER: Arhin GK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC500872 | biostudies-literature | 2004 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature