Separation of Spliceosome Assembly from Catalysis with Caged pre-mRNA Substrates

✍ Scribed by Steven G. Chaulk; Andrew M. MacMillan

• Book ID: 101366174
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2001
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 112 KB
• Volume: 40
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0044-8249
• DOI: 10.1002/1521-3773(20010601)40:11<2149::aid-anie2149>3.0.co;2-z

✦ Synopsis

Getting spliced? Pre-mRNA splicing is catalyzed by the spliceosome, a complex assembly of proteins and RNA, which forms in an ordered fashion on the substrate. If one of the residues of the substrate is caged with a photolabile o-nitrobenzyl group, the splicing reaction can be transiently blocked, until subsequent initiation by photolysis of the complexes. This RNA-caging approach effectively separates the spliceosome assembly from the catalytic reaction and allows the two processes to be studied independently.