Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Lu, Jian
• Huang, Bo
• Esberg, Anders
• Johansson, Marcus J O
• Byström, Anders S

Titel

The Kluyveromyces lactis gamma-toxin targets tRNA anticodons

Ist Teil von

• RNA (Cambridge), 2005-11, Vol.11 (11), p.1648-1654

Ort / Verlag

United States: Copyright 2005 by RNA Society

Erscheinungsjahr

2005

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Electronic Journals Library

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Kluyveromyces lactis killer strains secrete a heterotrimeric toxin (zymocin), which causes an irreversible growth arrest of sensitive yeast cells. Despite many efforts, the target(s) of the cytotoxic gamma-subunit of zymocin has remained elusive. Here we show that three tRNA species tRNA(Glu)(mcm(5)s(2)UUC), tRNA(Lys)(mcm(5)s(2)UUU), and tRNA(Gln)(mcm(5)s(2)UUG) are the targets of gamma-toxin. The toxin inhibits growth by cleaving these tRNAs at the 3' side of the modified wobble nucleoside 5-methoxycarbonylmethyl-2-thiouridine (mcm(5)s(2)U). Transfer RNA lacking a part of or the entire mcm(5) group is inefficiently cleaved by gamma-toxin, explaining the gamma-toxin resistance of the modification-deficient trm9, elp1-elp6, and kti11-kti13 mutants. The K. lactis gamma-toxin is the first eukaryotic toxin shown to target tRNA.