Issue 10, 2010
From the journal:

Molecular BioSystems

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

Andreas Czech,a   Ivan Fedyunin,ab   Gong Zhanga  and  Zoya Ignatova*a  

* Corresponding authors

a Biochemistry, Institute of Biochemistry and Biology, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24-25, 14467 Potsdam-Golm, Germany
E-mail: [email protected]
Fax: +49 331 977 5128
Tel: +49 331 977 5130

b Theory and Bio-Systems, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Am Mühlenberg 1, 14476 Potsdam-Golm, Germany

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

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Article information

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/C004796C
Article type
Review Article
Submitted
30 Mar 2010
Accepted
23 Apr 2010
First published
09 Jul 2010

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

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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

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