A tRNA pseudogene in the archaeon Methanococcus jannaschii

While searching the first completely sequenced genome of the archaeon Metha nococcus jannaschii for a small RNA gene, we discovered a 5' truncated gene of a transfer RNA (tRNA(Ser-UCR)) at position 334,431 - 334,486; including the CCA-end that exactly matched the 3' terminal domain of the annotated M . jannaschii tRNA(Ser-UCR) gene located at position 303,992 - 304,081. This truncated tRNA gene covering 56 nucleotides (about 2/3) of the genuine tRN A represents, to the best of our knowledge, the first described tRNA pseudo gene in the archaeal domain.