Eck Institute for Global Health, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA.
Insect Mol Biol. 2011 Apr;20(2):177-87. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2583.2010.01055.x. Epub 2010 Oct 29.
The transfer RNAs (tRNAs) are essential components of translational machinery. We determined that tRNA isoacceptors (tRNAs with different anticodons but incorporating the same amino acid in protein synthesis) show differential copy number abundance, genomic distribution patterns and sequence evolution between Aedes aegypti and Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes. The tRNA-Ala genes are present in unusually high copy number in the Ae. aegypti genome but not in An. gambiae. Many of the tRNA-Ala genes of Ae. aegypti are flanked by a highly conserved sequence that is not observed in An. gambiae. The relative abundance of tRNA isoacceptor genes is correlated with preferred (or optimal) and nonpreferred (or rare) codons for ∼2-4% of the predicted protein coding genes in both species. The majority (∼74-85%) of these genes are related to pathways involved with translation, energy metabolism and carbohydrate metabolism. Our results suggest that these genes and the related pathways may be under translational selection in these mosquitoes.
转移 RNA（tRNA）是翻译机制的重要组成部分。我们发现，tRNA 同工受体（具有不同反密码子但在蛋白质合成中掺入相同氨基酸的 tRNA）在埃及伊蚊和冈比亚按蚊蚊子之间显示出不同的拷贝数丰度、基因组分布模式和序列进化。tRNA-Ala 基因在埃及伊蚊基因组中以异常高的拷贝数存在，但在冈比亚按蚊中不存在。埃及伊蚊的许多 tRNA-Ala 基因都被一个高度保守的序列所包围，而在冈比亚按蚊中则没有观察到这个序列。tRNA 同工受体基因的相对丰度与这两个物种中约 2-4%的预测蛋白编码基因的首选（或最优）和非首选（或稀有）密码子相关。这些基因中的大多数（约 74-85%）与翻译、能量代谢和碳水化合物代谢相关的途径有关。我们的结果表明，这些基因和相关途径可能在这些蚊子中受到翻译选择的影响。
