Functional characterization of the human tRNA methyltransferases TRMT10A and TRMT10B

Abstract The TRM10 family of methyltransferases is responsible for the N1-methylation of purines at position 9 of tRNAs in Archaea and Eukarya. The human genome encodes three TRM10-type enzymes, of which only the mitochondrial TRMT10C was previously characterized in detail, whereas the functional significance of the two presumably nuclear enzymes TRMT10A and TRMT10B remained unexplained. Here we show that TRMT10A is m1G9-specific and methylates a subset of nuclear-encoded tRNAs, whilst TRMT10B is the first m1A9-specific tRNA methyltransferase found in eukaryotes and is responsible for the modification of a single nuclear-encoded tRNA. Furthermore, we show that the lack of G9 methylation cau…