The life of U6 small nuclear RNA, from cradle to grave
- 1Department of Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA
- 2Department of Biomolecular Chemistry, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA
- Corresponding authors: sebutcher{at}wisc.edu, dabrow{at}wisc.edu
Abstract
Removal of introns from precursor messenger RNA (pre-mRNA) and some noncoding transcripts is an essential step in eukaryotic gene expression. In the nucleus, this process of RNA splicing is carried out by the spliceosome, a multi-megaDalton macromolecular machine whose core components are conserved from yeast to humans. In addition to many proteins, the spliceosome contains five uridine-rich small nuclear RNAs (snRNAs) that undergo an elaborate series of conformational changes to correctly recognize the splice sites and catalyze intron removal. Decades of biochemical and genetic data, along with recent cryo-EM structures, unequivocally demonstrate that U6 snRNA forms much of the catalytic core of the spliceosome and is highly dynamic, interacting with three snRNAs, the pre-mRNA substrate, and >25 protein partners throughout the splicing cycle. This review summarizes the current state of knowledge on how U6 snRNA is synthesized, modified, incorporated into snRNPs and spliceosomes, recycled, and degraded.
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Article is online at http://www.rnajournal.org/cgi/doi/10.1261/rna.065136.117.
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