Two isoleucyl tRNAs that decode ‘synonymous’ codons divergently regulate breast cancer progression

Abstract

The human genome contains 61 codons that encode for the 20 amino acids. The synonymous codons of a given amino acid are decoded by a set of transfer RNAs (tRNAs) called isoacceptors. We report the surprising observation that two isoacceptor tRNAs that decode synonymous codons are modulated in opposing directions during breast cancer progression. Specifically, tRNAIleUAU is upregulated, whereas tRNAIleGAU is repressed as breast cancer cells attained enhanced metastatic capacity. Functional studies revealed that tRNAIleUAU promoted and tRNAIleGAU suppressed metastatic colonization. The expression of these tRNAs mediated opposing effects on codon-dependent translation of growth promoting genes. Consistent with this, multiple mitotic gene sets in the human genome are significantly enriched in the codon cognate to the growth-promoting tRNAIleUAU and significantly depleted of the codon cognate to the growth-suppressive tRNAIleGAU. Our findings uncover a specific isoacceptor tRNA pair that act in opposition—divergently regulating genes that contribute to growth and a disease phenotype. The degeneracy of the genetic code can thus be biologically exploited by human cancer cells via tRNA isoacceptor shifts that facilitate the transition towards a growth-promoting state.