The Evolution of tRNA Copy Number and Repertoire in Cellular Life

tRNAs are universal decoders that bridge the gap between transcriptome and proteome. They can also be processed into small RNA fragments with regulatory functions. In this work, we show that tRNA copy number is largely controlled by genome size in all cellular organisms, in contrast to what is observed for protein-coding genes that stop expanding between similar to 20,000 and similar to 35,000 loci per haploid genome in eukaryotes, regardless of genome size. Our analyses indicate that after the bacteria/archaea split, the tRNA gene pool experienced the evolution of increased anticodon diversity in the archaeal lineage, along with a tRNA gene size increase and mature tRNA size decrease. The evolution and diversification of eukaryotes from archaeal ancestors involved further expansion of the tRNA anticodon repertoire, additional increase in tRNA gene size and decrease in mature tRNA length, along with an explosion of the tRNA gene copy number that emerged coupled with accelerated genome size expansion. Our findings support the notion that macroscopic eukaryotes with a high diversity of cell types, such as land plants and vertebrates, independently evolved a high diversity of tRNA anticodons along with high gene redundancy caused by the expansion of the tRNA copy number. The results presented here suggest that the evolution of tRNA genes played important roles in the early split between bacteria and archaea, and in eukaryogenesis and the later emergence of complex eukaryotes, with potential implications in protein translation and gene regulation through tRNA-derived RNA fragments.

Automated summary

tRNAs are universal decoders that connect the transcriptome and proteome, and can be processed into small RNA fragments with regulatory functions. Our study shows that tRNA copy number is largely controlled by genome size in all organisms, in contrast to protein-coding genes. The evolution of tRNA genes played important roles in the early split between bacteria and archaea, as well as in eukaryogenesis and the emergence of complex eukaryotes.