As the most common cause of
speech disorders, the etiological study of
deafness is important for the diagnosis and treatment of
deafness. The mitochondrial genome has gradually become a hotspot for
deafness genetic research. Mitochondria are the core organelles of energy and material metabolism in eukaryotic cells. Human mitochondria contain 20
amino acids, except for
tRNALeu and
tRNASer, which have 2 iso-receptors, the other 18
amino acids correspond to unique tRNAs one by one, so mutations in any one
tRNA may lead to protein translation defects in mitochondria and thus affect their oxidative phosphorylation process resulting in the corresponding disease phenotype. Mitochondrial tRNAs are extensively modified with base modifications that contribute to the correct folding of tRNAs and maintain their stability. Defective mitochondrial
tRNA modifications are closely associated with the development of
mitochondrial diseases. The in-depth study found that modification defects of mammalian mitochondrial tRNAs are associated with
deafness, especially the
nucleotide modification defect of mt-tRNA-37. This article reviews the research on mitochondrial tRNAs,
nucleotide modification structure of mitochondrial tRNA-37, and nuclear genes related to modification defects to provide new ideas for the etiological study of
deafness.