Mammalian mitochondria have the innate ability to import tRNAs by a mechanism distinct from protein import.

Mitochondrial genomes generally encode a minimal set of tRNAs necessary for protein synthesis. However, a number of eukaryotes import tRNAs from the cytoplasm into their mitochondria. For instance, Saccharomyces cerevisiae imports cytoplasmic tRNA(Gln) into the mitochondrion without any added protein factors.