A human homolog of the yeast gene encoding tRNA 2′-phosphotransferase: cloning, characterization and complementation analysis

The Saccharomyces cerevisiae TPT1 gene plays a role in removing the 2′-phosphate from ligated tRNA during the maturation of pre-tRNA. Here we reported the cloning and characterization of the human TRPT1 gene as a homolog of yeast TPT1 . The TRPT1 gene is located at human chromosome 11q13 and encodes a polypeptide of 253 amino acids. BLAST searches with its amino acid sequence revealed the ubiquitous occurrence of TRPT1 homologs and their functional relationships with the presence of the DUF60/KptA domain. Northern analysis demonstrated that the gene is primarily expressed in heart and skeletal muscle, with lower or undetectable levels in other tissues studied. A plasmid-shuffling experiment showed that the human TRPT1 gene could complement the tpt1 mutation in S. cerevisiae