RNA Splicing and Genes

Abstract

The splicing of long transcripts of RNA (copied from DNA in the cell nucleus) into smaller, specific mRNA (ready for export to the protein-producing machinery in the cytoplasm) is an important event in the regulation of gene expression in eukaryotic cells. The splicing reaction occurs as a late step in the nuclear pathway for synthesis of mRNAs. This pathway commences with initiation of transcription by RNA polymerase II and probably involves an integrated series of steps each dependent on previous events. Splicing of precursors to mRNAs involves the formation of a spliceosome complex containing the 5' and 3' splice sites. This complex contains the evolutionarily highly conserved small nuclear RNAs (snRNAs) U2, U4, U5, and U6. The most abundant snRNA, U1, is required to form the spliceosome and may be a part of the spliceosome. Analogues of these snRNAs have been identified in yeast. Assembly of the spliceosome probably involves the binding of a multi-snRNA complex containing U4, U5, and U6 snRNAs. Several observations suggest that the association of snRNAs in such complexes is quite dynamic. It is argued that the snRNAs in the spliceosome form a catalytic RNA structure that is responsible for the cleavage and ligation steps during splicing.

Molecular characterization of the mouse ribosomal protein S24 multigene family: a uniquely expressed intron-containing gene with cell-specific expression of three alternatively spliced mRNAs

“…Moreover, all the introns have 5' splice-junction sequences that are homologous (5 or 6 matches in 9 residues) to the 5' splice consensus sequence (Table 1). This sequence is involved in base pairing with part of the U1 snRNA sequence, and plays a pivotal role in the splicing process (52)(53)(54)(55)(56)(57). In addition, near the 3' ends of all the introns there are loosely defined branch point sequences (BPS) that are complementary to part of the U2 snRNA sequence ( Table 1).…”

Organization of Highly Acetylated Chromatin around Sites of Heterogeneous Nuclear RNA Accumulation

“…The budding of splicing factorenriched complexes from IGCs and the vectorial transport of these complexes to sites of active transcription implicates IGCs as reservoirs of splicing factors that are targeted to surrounding loci . A preassembled spliceosome containing single copies of the snRNAs is expected to contain 718 atoms of phosphorus contributed by RNA (Sharp, 1988). Quantitative ESI enabled us to directly evaluate the possibility that interchromatin granules correspond to preassembled but inactive spliceosomes.…”

PUF60/AURKA Axis Contributes to Tumor Progression and Malignant Phenotypes in Bladder Cancer

“…RNA splicing proteins are a group of proteins not only involved in pre-mRNA splicing but also RNA export and transcriptional regulation. It has been reported that these proteins were widely associated with human diseases (8,9,(18)(19)(20)75). In the present study, we identified PUF60 as one of the most differentially expressed genes between normal and tumor bladder tissues among the 97 RNA splicing proteins.…”

“…RNA splicing related proteins are a group of proteins containing RNA binding domains, which are closely involved in pre-mRNA maturation by specifically removing introns (8,9). There are three protein families which are well-established RNA splicing factors, including serine and arginine-rich (SR) proteins (10), RNA binding motif (RBM) proteins (11) and heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoproteins (HNRNP) proteins (12).…”