Poster abstracts

Poster number 112 submitted by Maitri Patel

Sequential and dynamic RNA:RNA base-pairing interactions between U6atac and U12 snRNAs predicted to form Helix 1a and Helix 1b

Maitri Patel (Biology Department at Cleveland State University), Jagjit Singh (Biology Department at Cleveland State University), Girish Shukla (Biology Department at Cleveland State University)

Abstract:
In eukaryotes, pre-mRNA splicing is an important step for gene expression. Splicing is a two-step process which is carried out by a multi-megadalton molecular weight ribonucleoprotein (RNP) machinery called spliceosome. Spliceosome converts pre-mRNA to mRNA by removing non-coding sequence (introns) and splice together coding sequence (exons). Mammalian pre-mRNA are spliced by two different class of spliceosomes which are known as U2- and U12- dependent spliceosomes. U12 dependent spliceosome is composed of five small nuclear RNAs (snRNA). As compared to U2-dependent spliceosome, there is very less known about the catalytic process of U12-dependent splicing. U6atac and U12 snRNA are central to U12-dependent splicing. Therefore, to understand importance of U6atac and U12 snRNA interaction during splicing we have created a series of 2nd site nucleotide mutations in both U6atac and U12 snRNA to test for their functionality in in vivo splicing assays. Our work will help to better understand the catalytic process of minor class spliceosome and involvement of these snRNA in mammalian gene expression and genetic disorders.

References:
Singh, J., Sikand, K., Conrad, H., Will, C. L., Komar, A. A., & Shukla, G. C. (2016). U6atac snRNA stem-loop interacts with U12 p65 RNA binding protein and is functionally interchangeable with the U12 apical stem-loop III. Scientific Reports, 31393. doi:10.1038/srep31393
Patel, A. A., & Steitz, J. A. (2003). Splicing double: insights from the second spliceosome. Nature Reviews. Molecular Cell Biology,4(12), 960-970.
Will, C. L., & Lührmann, R. (2005). Splicing of a rare class of introns by the U12-dependent spliceosome. Biological Chemistry, 386(8), 713-724.
Turunen, J. J., Niemelä, E. H., Verma, B., & Frilander, M. J. (2013). The significant other: splicing by the minor spliceosome. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews. RNA, 4(1), 61–76.

Keywords: Minor Class Splicing , snRNAs