Abstract
Transfer RNA-derived small RNAs (tsRNAs) are an emerging class of regulatory non-coding RNAs that play important roles in post-transcriptional regulation across a variety of biological processes. Here, we review the recent advances in tsRNA biogenesis and regulatory functions from the perspectives of functional and evolutionary genomics, with a focus on the tsRNA biology of Drosophila. We first summarize our current understanding of the biogenesis mechanisms of different categories of tsRNAs that are generated under physiological or stressed conditions. Next, we review the conservation patterns of tsRNAs in all domains of life, with an emphasis on the conservation of tsRNAs between two Drosophila species. Then, we elaborate the currently known regulatory functions of tsRNAs in mRNA translation that are independent of, or dependent on, Argonaute (AGO) proteins. We also highlight some issues related to the fundamental biology of tsRNAs that deserve further study.
Highlights
Transfer RNAs are a class of non-coding RNAs that are crucial for protein synthesis in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells
We previously found that 83.4% of the Transfer RNA-derived small RNAs (tsRNAs) species detected in D. virilis have the identical sequences detected in the small RNA sequencing libraries of D. melanogaster, and the abundance of the 5 tsRNAs was significantly correlated in these two species [23]
ANG and Rny1 are involved in the biogenesis of Transfer RNAs (tRNAs)-halves in vertebrates and yeasts respectively, ANG does not exist in Drosophila, and whether the ortholog of Rny1 in Drosophila participates in tsRNA biogenesis is still questionable
Summary
Transfer RNAs (tRNAs) are a class of non-coding RNAs that are crucial for protein synthesis in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. Many studies suggest that tsRNAs are not random degradation products of tRNAs but play important roles in many cellular activities such as DNA damage response [10], cell proliferation and cancer progression [11,12,13,14], transposon silencing [15,16], sperm maturation [6,17], and epigenetic inheritance of metabolism-alteration induced traits [18] These studies have significantly advanced our understanding of the biogenesis and the molecular functions of tsRNAs [5,19,20,21,22]. We review the recent advances in tsRNA biogenesis and regulatory functions from the perspectives of functional and evolutionary genomics, with a focus on the tsRNA biology of Drosophila as revealed by our recent study [23]
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