Martin Jínek

Structural framework for the assembly of the human tRNA ligase complex

Abstract In human cells, a subset of tRNA-encoding genes contain introns. These are removed by a spliceosome-independent pathway in which the tRNA splicing endonuclease complex catalyzes intron excision. The resulting exons are subsequently ligated by the tRNA-ligase complex (tRN...

Ashwin and FAM98 paralogs define nuclear and cytoplasmic RNA ligase complexes for tRNA biogenesis

Abstract The tRNA ligase complex (tRNA-LC) seals tRNA exon halves in the nucleus during pre-tRNA splicing and XBP1 -mRNA exons in the cytoplasm as part of the unfolded protein response (UPR). This dual function requires the tRNA-LC to be either nuclear or cytoplasmic. Here, we re...

Transposon end recognition and excision mechanisms of type I-F CRISPR-associated transposases

Abstract CRISPR-associated transposons (CASTs) are Tn7-like elements that have co-opted RNA-guided CRISPR effectors for targeted DNA insertion. CASTs have been adapted as genome editing tools for programmable, site-specific integration. Among them, the type I-F system from Ps e u...