Inosine modifications in human tRNAs are incorporated at the precursor tRNA level. Nucleic Acids Res

Transfer RNAs (tRNAs) are key adaptor molecules of the genetic code that are heavily modified post-transcriptionally. Inosine at the first residue of the an-ticodon (position 34; I34) is an essential widespread tRNA modification that has been poorly studied thus far. The modification in eukaryotes results from a deamination reaction of adenine that is catalyzed by the heterodimeric enzyme adenosine deaminase act-ing on tRNA (hetADAT), composed of two subunits: ADAT2 and ADAT3. Using high-throughput small RNA sequencing (RNAseq), we show that this modifica-tion is incorporated to human tRNAs at the precursor tRNA level and during maturation. We also function-ally validated the human genes encoding for hetADAT and show that the subunits of this enzyme co-localize in nucleus in an ADAT2-dependent manner. Finally, by knocking down HsADAT2, we demonstrate that variations in the cellular levels of hetADAT will result in changes in the levels of I34 modification in all its potential substrates. Altogether, we present RNAseq as a powerful tool to study post-transcriptional tRNA modifications at the precursor tRNA level and give the first insights on the biology of I34 tRNA modifi-cation in metazoans