Angiogenin generates specific stress-induced tRNA halves and is not involved in tRF-3–mediated gene silencing

Abstract

tRNA fragments (tRFs) and tRNA halves have been implicated in various cellular processes, including gene silencing, translation, stress granule assembly, cell differentiation, retrotransposon activity, symbiosis, apoptosis, and more. Overexpressed angiogenin (ANG) cleaves tRNA anticodons and produces tRNA halves similar to those produced in response to stress. However, it is not clear whether endogenous ANG is essential for producing the stress-induced tRNA halves. It is also not clear whether smaller tRFs are generated from the tRNA halves. Here, using global short RNA-Seq approach, we found that ANG overexpression selectively cleaves a subset of tRNAs, including tRNA Glu , tRNA Gly , tRNA Lys , tRNA Val , tRNA His , tRNA Asp , and tRNA SeC to produce tRNA halves and tRF-5s that are 26–30 bases long. Surprisingly, ANG knockout revealed that the majority of stress-induced tRNA halves, except for the 5′ half from tRNA HisGTG and the 3′ half from tRNA AspGTC , are ANG independent, suggesting there are other RNases that produce tRNA halves. We also found that the 17–25 bases–long tRF-3s and tRF-5s that could enter into Argonaute complexes are not induced by ANG overexpression, suggesting that they are generated independently from tRNA halves. Consistent with this, ANG knockout did not decrease tRF-3 levels or gene-silencing activity. We conclude that ANG cleaves specific tRNAs and is not the only RNase that creates tRNA halves and that the shorter tRFs are not generated from the tRNA halves or from independent tRNA cleavage by ANG.