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Article: The spliceosome comes assembled
- Article from:
- The Scientist
- Article date:
- November 11, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright The Scientist, Inc. Nov 11, 2002. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Researchers find evidence of preformed, purifiable, penta-snRNP
In multicellular organisms, the earliest products of transcription, called pre-mRNAs, undergo a molecular makeover before shipping out to the cytoplasm, where the modified mRNAs spell out the recipe for protein synthesis. Preparing the pre-mRNA involves modifying the molecule's two ends and splicing out one or more introns in between. This splicing reaction occurs in large complexes known as spliceosomes, which consist of five small nuclear RNAs (snRNAs) called U1, U2, U4, U5, and U6, as well as various proteins. Together, these snRNAs and proteins form small nuclear ribonucleoprotein particles (snRNPs), setting the stage for ...