Filtering of deep sequencing data reveals the existence of abundant Dicer-dependent small RNAs derived from tRNAs
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 19, 2026

Enhanced Northern Blot Detection of Small RNA Species in Drosophila Melanogaster
Published on: August 21, 2014
Christian Cole1, Andrew Sobala, Cheng Lu
1Division of Biological Chemistry and Drug Discovery, College of Life Sciences, University of Dundee, Dundee DD1 5EH, United Kingdom .
Abstract:
Deep sequencing technologies such as Illumina, SOLiD, and 454 platforms have become very powerful tools in discovering and quantifying small RNAs in diverse organisms. Sequencing small RNA fractions always identifies RNAs derived from abundant RNA species such as rRNAs, tRNAs, snRNA, and snoRNA, and they are widely considered to be random degradation products. We carried out bioinformatic analysis of deep sequenced HeLa RNA and after quality filtering, identified highly abundant small RNA fragments, derived from mature tRNAs that are likely produced by specific processing rather than from random degradation. Moreover, we showed that the processing of small RNAs derived from tRNA(Gln) is dependent on Dicer in vivo and that Dicer cleaves the tRNA in vitro.
Related Concept Videos
RNA Interference
This process occurs naturally in cells, often through the activity of genomically-encoded microRNAs. Researchers can take advantage of this mechanism by introducing synthetic RNAs to deactivate specific genes for research or therapeutic purposes. For example, RNAi could be used...
Experimental RNAi
siRNA - Small Interfering RNAs
In the cytoplasm, siRNA is processed from a double-stranded RNA, which comes from either endogenous DNA transcription or exogenous sources like a virus. This double-stranded RNA is then cleaved by the ATP-dependent...
piRNA - Piwi-interacting RNAs
Small interfering RNAs (siRNA)
In the cytoplasm, siRNA is processed from a double-stranded RNA, which comes from either endogenous DNA transcription or exogenous sources like a virus. This double-stranded RNA is then cleaved by the ATP-dependent...
RNA-seq
Before the discovery of RNA-seq, microarray-based methods and Sanger sequencing were used for transcriptome analysis. However, while microarray-based...

