Identification of two novel functional tRNA-derived fragments induced in response to respiratory syncytial virus infection

Jiehua Zhou, Shenxuan Liu, Yu Chen, Yu Fu, Alexander J. Silver, Mark S. Hill, Inhan Lee, Yong Sun Lee, Xiaoyong Bao

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    50 Scopus citations

    Abstract

    Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the leading cause of lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI) in children from infancy up to early childhood. Recently, we demonstrated that RSV infection alters cellular small non-coding RNA (sncRNA) expression, most notably the tRNA-derived RNA fragments (tRFs). However, the functions of the tRFs in virus–host interaction are largely unknown. Herein, we examined the role of three RSV-induced tRFs derived from the 5-end of mature tRNAs decoding GlyCCC, LysCTT and CysGCA (named tRF5-GlyCCC, tRF5-LysCTT and tRF5-CysGCA, respectively) in controlling RSV replication. We found that tRF5-GlyCCC and tRF5-LysCTT, but not tRF5-CysGCA, promote RSV replication, demonstrating the functional specificity of tRFs. The associated molecular mechanisms underlying the functions of tRF5-GlyCCC and tRF5LysCTT were also investigated. Regulating the expression and/or activity of these tRFs may provide new insights into preventive and therapeutic strategies for RSV infection. The study also accumulated data for future development of a tRF targeting algorithm.

    Original languageEnglish (US)
    Article number000852
    Pages (from-to)1600-1610
    Number of pages11
    JournalJournal of General Virology
    Volume98
    Issue number7
    DOIs
    StatePublished - Jul 2017

    Keywords

    • RSV
    • Viral replication
    • tRNA-derived RNA fragments

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Virology

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