A central tenet of biology is the accurate flow of information from nucleic acids to proteins through the genetic code. It is commonly believed that translation deviating from the genetic code is to be avoided at all times in cells. By using a new genomic method, we have discovered that in contrary, mammalian cells can deliberately reprogram the genetic code with the amino acid methionine upon innate immune activation and chemically triggered oxidative stress. Reprogramming the genetic code occurs through aminoacylation of non-methionyl-tRNAs with methionine, and is inducible upon regulated production of the reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the cell. We propose that mis-translation via regulated tRNA misacylation is a common mechanism for stress response for cells. We will explore and test hypotheses on biological effects and function on tRNA misacylation with methionine and establish a full spectrum of tRNA misacylation for all amino acids and their participations in translation in mammalian cells. The results and conceptual understanding obtained here shall help establish a new field of biology of mis-translation.

Public Health Relevance

We have discovered that mammalian cells deliberately reprogram the genetic code with the amino acid methionine upon innate immune activation and oxidative stress. Here we aim to establish biology of mis-translation via tRNA misacylation as a new mechanism of stress response in mammalian cells.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)
Type
NIH Director’s Pioneer Award (NDPA) (DP1)
Project #
5DP1GM105386-05
Application #
8915222
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZGM1)
Program Officer
Bender, Michael T
Project Start
2011-09-30
Project End
2017-07-31
Budget Start
2015-08-01
Budget End
2017-07-31
Support Year
5
Fiscal Year
2015
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Chicago
Department
Biochemistry
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
005421136
City
Chicago
State
IL
Country
United States
Zip Code
60637
Pan, Tao (2018) Modifications and functional genomics of human transfer RNA. Cell Res 28:395-404
Schwartz, Michael H; Pan, Tao (2017) Function and origin of mistranslation in distinct cellular contexts. Crit Rev Biochem Mol Biol 52:205-219
Schwartz, Michael H; Pan, Tao (2017) tRNA Misacylation with Methionine in the Mouse Gut Microbiome in Situ. Microb Ecol 74:10-14
Dai, Qing; Zheng, Guanqun; Schwartz, Michael H et al. (2017) Selective Enzymatic Demethylation of N2 ,N2 -Dimethylguanosine in RNA and Its Application in High-Throughput tRNA Sequencing. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl 56:5017-5020
Clark, Wesley C; Evans, Molly E; Dominissini, Dan et al. (2016) tRNA base methylation identification and quantification via high-throughput sequencing. RNA 22:1771-1784
Schwartz, Michael H; Pan, Tao (2016) Temperature dependent mistranslation in a hyperthermophile adapts proteins to lower temperatures. Nucleic Acids Res 44:294-303
Zhou, Katherine I; Parisien, Marc; Dai, Qing et al. (2016) N(6)-Methyladenosine Modification in a Long Noncoding RNA Hairpin Predisposes Its Conformation to Protein Binding. J Mol Biol 428:822-833
Wang, Xiaoyun; Chow, Christina R; Ebine, Kazumi et al. (2016) Interaction of tRNA with MEK2 in pancreatic cancer cells. Sci Rep 6:28260
Schwartz, Michael H; Waldbauer, Jacob R; Zhang, Lichun et al. (2016) Global tRNA misacylation induced by anaerobiosis and antibiotic exposure broadly increases stress resistance in Escherichia coli. Nucleic Acids Res 44:10292-10303
Gomes, Ana Cristina; Kordala, Anna J; Strack, Rita et al. (2016) A dual fluorescent reporter for the investigation of methionine mistranslation in live cells. RNA 22:467-76

Showing the most recent 10 out of 18 publications