tRNAscan-SE 2.0: Improved Detection and Functional Classification of Transfer RNA Genes
ABSTRACTtRNAscan-SE has been widely used for whole-genome transfer RNA gene prediction for nearly two decades. With the increased availability of new genomes, a vastly larger training set has enabled creation of nearly one hundred specialized isotype-specific models, greatly improving tRNAscan-SE’s ability to identify and classify both typical and atypical tRNAs. We employ a new multi-model annotation strategy where predicted tRNAs are scored against a full set of isotype-specific covariance models. A post-filtering feature also better identifies tRNA-derived SINEs that are abundant in many eukaryotic genomes, and provides a “high confidence” tRNA gene set which improves upon prior pseudogene prediction. These new enhancements of tRNAscan-SE will provide researchers more accurate detection and more comprehensive annotation for tRNA genes.