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Updated: Dec 3, 2025

Determination of the Optimal Chromosomal Locations for a DNA Element in Escherichia coli Using a Novel Transposon-mediated Approach
Published on: September 11, 2017
The birth of a bacterial tRNA gene by large-scale, tandem duplication events
Gökçe B Ayan1, Hye Jin Park1,2, Jenna Gallie1
1Department of Evolutionary Theory, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Plön, Germany.
Abstract:
Organisms differ in the types and numbers of tRNA genes that they carry. While the evolutionary mechanisms behind tRNA gene set evolution have been investigated theoretically and computationally, direct observations of tRNA gene set evolution remain rare. Here, we report the evolution of a tRNA gene set in laboratory populations of the bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens SBW25. The growth defect caused by deleting the single-copy tRNA gene, serCGA, is rapidly compensated by large-scale (45-290 kb) duplications in the chromosome. Each duplication encompasses a second, compensatory tRNA gene (serTGA) and is associated with a rise in tRNA-Ser(UGA) in the mature tRNA pool. We postulate that tRNA-Ser(CGA) elimination increases the translational demand for tRNA-Ser(UGA), a pressure relieved by increasing serTGA copy number. This work demonstrates that tRNA gene sets can evolve through duplication of existing tRNA genes, a phenomenon that may contribute to the presence of multiple, identical tRNA gene copies within genomes.
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