ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2018
Transfer RNA genes experience exceptionally elevated mutation rates.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 41 papers.
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Who cites it
41 citing papers in PubMed, 59 citations in OpenAlex.
- Article
- The regulation, function and disease relevance of cytoplasmic tRNAs.Nature reviews. Molecular cell biology · 2026Review
- Allelic Variation at tRNA Genes in Three Nematode Species Indicates Mutation Load Despite Strong Purifying Selection.Genome biology and evolution · 2026Article
- How Does Transcription-Associated Mutagenesis Shape tRNA Microevolution?Genome biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Mistranslation from an endogenous tRNA variant in human pan-genome cell lines.Nucleic acids research · 2026Article
- Transfer RNA regulation during herpesvirus infection: Wielding a sword or raising a shield?PLoS pathogens · 2025Article
- Transcription start sites experience a high influx of heritable variants fueled by early development.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Sex-biased duplicates are rapidly generated duringbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- A tRNA gene potential to activate interferon signaling involves selective termination and is suppressible by La protein/SSB.Nucleic acids research · 2025Article
- Reactivation of the tRNASer/tRNATyr gene cluster in Arabidopsis thaliana root tips.The Plant cell · 2025Article
- Glutamine missense suppressor transfer RNAs inhibit polyglutamine aggregation.Molecular therapy. Nucleic acids · 2025Article
- Beyond the ORF: Paralog-specific regulation of RPS7/eS7 mRNAs via 3'-UTRs and promoter sequences.PloS one · 2025Article
- Isolation and characterization of Salmonella enterica- and Escherichia coli-specific bacteriophages of the genus Epseptimavirus from wastewater in Minnesota.Archives of virology · 2024Article
- Towards the genomic sequence code of DNA fragility for machine learning.Nucleic acids research · 2024Article
- Endemic Radiation of African Moonfish,Biomolecules · 2024Article
- Article
- Collision-Induced Unfolding Reveals Disease-Associated Stability Shifts in Mitochondrial Transfer Ribonucleic Acids.Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2024Article
- Selective gene expression maintains human tRNA anticodon pools during differentiation.Nature cell biology · 2024Article
- A mutation rate model at the basepair resolution identifies the mutagenic effect of polymerase III transcription.Nature genetics · 2023Article
- Parental care shapes the evolution of molecular genetic variation.Evolution letters · 2023Article
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6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
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Abstract
Transfer RNAs (tRNAs) are a central component for the biological synthesis of proteins, and they are among the most highly conserved and frequently transcribed genes in all living things. Despite their clear significance for fundamental cellular processes, the forces governing tRNA evolution are poorly understood. We present evidence that transcription-associated mutagenesis and strong purifying selection are key determinants of patterns of sequence variation within and surrounding tRNA genes in humans and diverse model organisms. Remarkably, the mutation rate at broadly expressed cytosolic tRNA loci is likely between 7 and 10 times greater than the nuclear genome average. Furthermore, evolutionary analyses provide strong evidence that tRNA genes, but not their flanking sequences, experience strong purifying selection acting against this elevated mutation rate. We also find a strong correlation between tRNA expression levels and the mutation rates in their immediate flanking regions, suggesting a simple method for estimating individual tRNA gene activity. Collectively, this study illuminates the extreme competing forces in tRNA gene evolution and indicates that mutations at tRNA loci contribute disproportionately to mutational load and have unexplored fitness consequences in human populations.
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