Since their discovery in the early ’60s, tRNA research has stayed interwoven with the evolution of the genetic code and translation. New information keeps emerging from biogenesis, processing, editing and localisation — and from the recognition of tRNA by aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases and its role in disease.

Most strikingly, tRNA-dependent gene-expression regulation in pathogens, via T-box riboswitches, brings novel molecular targets for new antibiotics into the spotlight.