Global view of dynamic expression and precise mapping of mitochondrial tRNAs-derived fragments during stressed conditions in S. pombe

Abstract

In this study, we provide a global view of population and processing of mitochondrial tRNAs-derived fragments (mt-tRFs) in fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe. Here, mt-tRFs of 15–30 nucleotides were retrieved from S. pombe small RNA libraries obtained from unstressed, stress, and during stationary phase conditions. We demonstrate that production of these fragments increase during heat stress and stationary phase conditions in S. pombe, especially (most notably) in stationary phase. Analysis of data also reveals depending on the tRNA, either 5′-mt-tRF or 3′-mt-tRF was found and major mt-tRNA processing sites have been precisely identified. Furthermore, RNA-seq reveals that inactivation of trz2 encoding S. pombe mitochondrial tRNase ZL globally impairs mt-tRF processing. Finally, our result showed mt-tRFs were predicted to target mitochondrial genome mapping mtDNA-encoded protein gene. These observations suggest that mitochondrial tRFs may play an important regulatory role in response to stress and development.