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Updated: May 15, 2026

Vaccinia Reporter Viruses for Quantifying Viral Function at All Stages of Gene Expression
Published on: May 15, 2014
Vaccinia and influenza A viruses select rather than adjust tRNAs to optimize translation
Mariana Pavon-Eternod1, Alexandre David, Kimberly Dittmar
1Laboratory of Viral Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
Abstract:
Transfer RNAs (tRNAs) are central to protein synthesis and impact translational speed and fidelity by their abundance. Here we examine the extent to which viruses manipulate tRNA populations to favor translation of their own genes. We study two very different viruses: influenza A virus (IAV), a medium-sized (13 kB genome) RNA virus; and vaccinia virus (VV), a large (200 kB genome) DNA virus. We show that the total cellular tRNA population remains unchanged following viral infection, whereas the polysome-associated tRNA population changes dramatically in a virus-specific manner. The changes in polysome-associated tRNA levels reflect the codon usage of viral genes, suggesting the existence of local tRNA pools optimized for viral translation.
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