Nuclc. Acids. Res. OUP
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The tmRNA Website

http://www.indiana.edu/~tmrna

Contact   kwilliam@bio.indiana.edu


Database Description

tmRNA (also known as 10Sa RNA or SsrA) plays a central role in an unusual process termed trans-translation, whereby a stalled ribosome switches from a problematic mRNA to a short reading frame within tmRNA during translation of a single polypeptide. Research on the mechanism, structure and biology of tmRNA is served by the tmRNA Website, a collection of sequences, alignments and other information. Four pseudoknots are usually present in each tmRNA, so the database is rich with information on pseudoknot variability. The tmRNA Website currently contains 114 nonduplicate tmRNA sequences from 99 species. Several new sequences have been added since last year; the most interesting are the two-piece tmRNAs that result from processing of a circularly permuted precursor. tmRNA gene permutation has occurred independently in the alpha-Proteobacteria (previously thought to lack tmRNA) and a small group of cyanobacteria. This discovery led to the identification of a permuted tmRNA sequence in a primitive mitochondrial genome, whose lack of a tag reading frame suggests a very different function from bacterial tmRNAs. Another new sequence, from Dehalococcoides ethenogenes, is also unusual in that an extra base-pair appears in the otherwise extremely uniform analog of the TYC stem of tRNA.

Category   RNA Sequences

Go to the abstract in the NAR 2002 Database Issue.

 

Compilation Paper
Categories List
Alphabetical List
Search Summary Papers