Odom_tRNA_evolution. Odom_tRNA_evolution

Homologous vertebrate tissues express a highly conserved set of transcribed genes; paradoxically, expression of tRNAs that are required to translate mRNAs into proteins have been reported to be divergent. To resolve this paradox, we mapped the genome-wide occupancy of pol III in primary tissues isolated from six mammals. We confirmed that the specific tRNA genes bound by pol III, as well as the extent and stability of binding, can vary substantially among mammalian tissues, and we discovered that this divergence is far greater between species. We combined pol III occupancy from genomically discrete tRNA loci into collective binding into isoacceptor classes and then into amino acid-based isotype classes, and at each step we found increasing conservation. At the level of amino acid isotypes, pol III binding is almost invariant among all the tissues and species profiled. Thus, the basal transcriptional machinery is constrained collectively in its synthesis of functional tRNA isotypes, despite rapid divergence of polymerase binding to specific tRNA genes.