A Transfer-RNA-derived Small RNA Regulates Ribosome Biogenesis

Overview

Journal Nature

Specialty Science

Date 2017 Nov 30

PMID 29186115

Citations 278

Authors

Hak Kyun Kim

Gabriele Fuchs

Shengchun Wang

Wei Wei

Yue Zhang

Hyesuk Park

Biswajoy Roy-Chaudhuri

Pan Li

Jianpeng Xu

Kirk Chu

Feijie Zhang

Mei-Sze Chua

Samuel So

Qiangfeng Cliff Zhang

Peter Sarnow

Mark A Kay

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Transfer-RNA-derived small RNAs (tsRNAs; also called tRNA-derived fragments) are an abundant class of small non-coding RNAs whose biological roles are not well understood. Here we show that inhibition of a specific tsRNA, LeuCAG3'tsRNA, induces apoptosis in rapidly dividing cells in vitro and in a patient-derived orthotopic hepatocellular carcinoma model in mice. This tsRNA binds at least two ribosomal protein mRNAs (RPS28 and RPS15) to enhance their translation. A decrease in translation of RPS28 mRNA blocks pre-18S ribosomal RNA processing, resulting in a reduction in the number of 40S ribosomal subunits. These data establish a post-transcriptional mechanism that can fine-tune gene expression during different physiological states and provide a potential new target for treating cancer.

Citing Articles

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