Issue 10, 2010

Silent mutations in sight: co-variations in tRNA abundance as a key to unravel consequences of silent mutations

Abstract

Mutations that alter the amino acid sequence are known to potentially exert deleterious effects on protein function, whereas substitutions of nucleotides without amino acid change are assumed to be neutral for the protein's functionality. However, cumulative evidence suggests that synonymous substitutions might also induce phenotypic variability by affecting splicing accuracy, translation fidelity, and conformation and function of proteins. tRNA isoacceptors mediate the translation of codons to amino acids, and asymmetric tRNA abundance causes variations in the rate of translation of each single triplet. Consequently, the effect of a silent point mutation in the coding region could be significant due to differential abundances of the cognate tRNA(s), emphasizing the importance of precise assessment of tRNA composition. Here, we provide an overview of the methods used to quantitatively determine the concentrations of tRNA species and discuss synonymous mutations in the context of tRNA composition of the cell, thus providing a new twist on the detrimental impact of the silent mutations.

Graphical abstract: Silent mutations in sight: co-variations in tRNA abundance as a key to unravel consequences of silent mutations

Article information

Article type
Review Article
Submitted
30 Mar 2010
Accepted
23 Apr 2010
First published
09 Jul 2010

Mol. BioSyst., 2010,6, 1767-1772

Silent mutations in sight: co-variations in tRNA abundance as a key to unravel consequences of silent mutations

A. Czech, I. Fedyunin, G. Zhang and Z. Ignatova, Mol. BioSyst., 2010, 6, 1767 DOI: 10.1039/C004796C

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Spotlight

Advertisements