The marine photosynthetic bacterium Rhodovulum sulfidophilum produces nucleic acids extracellularly. We have identified these extracellular RNAs as fully mature sized tRNAs and fragments of 16S and 23S rRNAs. Most of the tRNAs have mature 3′-terminal CCA sequences. In the present study we found that these extracellular tRNAs were not aminoacylated, although almost all intracellular tRNAs are aminoacylated.
