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An exon that prevents transport of a mature mRNA
An exon that prevents transport of a mature mRNA.
89
In Caenorhabditis elegans, pre-mRNA for the essential splicing factor U2AF65 sometimes is spliced to produce an RNA that includes an extra 216-bp internal exon, exon 3. Inclusion of exon 3 inserts an in-frame stop codon, yet this RNA is not subject to SMG-mediated RNA surveillance. To test whether exon 3 causes RNA to remain nuclear and thereby escape decay, we inserted it into the 3' untranslated region of a gfp reporter gene. Although exon 3 did not affect accumulation or processing of the mRNA, it dramatically suppressed expression of green fluorescent protein (GFP). We showed by in situ hybridization that exon 3-containing gfp RNA is retained in the nucleus. Intriguingly, exon 3 contains 10 matches to the 8-bp 3' splice-site consensus. We hypothesized that U2AF might recognize this octamer and thereby prevent export. This idea is supported by RNA interference experiments in which reduced levels of U2AF resulted in a small burst of gfp expression.
MacMorris MA, Zorio DA, Blumenthal T
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
1999-03-30 00:00
96
7
3813-8
Animals,Animals, Genetically Modified,Caenorhabditis elegans,Exons,Gene Expression Regulation,Green Fluorescent Proteins,Luminescent Proteins,Nuclear Proteins,RNA Splicing,RNA, Messenger,Recombinant Proteins,Ribonucleoproteins,Transcription, Genetic,Luminescent Proteins,Nuclear Proteins,RNA, Messenger,Recombinant Proteins,Ribonucleoproteins,splicing factor U2AF,Green Fluorescent Proteins
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, CO 80262, USA
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.
NIGMS GM42432
0027-8424
7
True
10097120
