SMN Deficiency Causes Tissue-Specific Perturbations in the Repertoire of snRNAs and Widespread Defects in Splicing

sea-maid submitted, created time 7 months 3 weeks (www.cell.com)

With regards to the survival of motor neurons (SMN), certain proteins are essential for the biogenesis of small nuclear RNA (snRNA)-ribonucleoproteins (snRNPs), the major components of the pre-mRNA splicing machinery.

This article suggests that SMN deficiency causes tissue-specific perturbations in the repertoire of snRNAs and widespread defects in splicing.

Submit comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: motor neurons neurons splicing RNA SMN snRNA small nuclear RNA pre-mRNA splicing

U2 toggles iteratively between the stem IIa and stem IIc conformations to promote pre-mRNA splicing

athena submitted, created time 1 year 8 months (www.genesdev.org)

"Disrupting stem IIc also exacerbated the 5' splice site cleavage defects of certain substrate mutations, suggesting a parallel role for stem IIc at both catalytic stages. We propose that U2, much like the ribosome, toggles between two conformations—a closed stem IIc conformation that promotes catalysis and an open stem IIa conformation that promotes substrate binding and release. "

Submit comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: U2 snRNA Prp16 spliceosome DExD&H box pre-mRNA splicing