Poster abstracts
Poster number 142 submitted by Frances Moore
Thermal stability analyses of RNA duplexes with 2'-branches
Frances Franky Moore (Chemistry, Carnegie Mellon University), Stephanie Wang (Chemistry, Carnegie Mellon University), Stephanie Mack (Chemistry, Carnegie Mellon University), Timothy Chad Ratterman (Chemistry, Carnegie Mellon University), Subha R. Das (Chemistry, Carnegie Mellon University)
Abstract:
In RNA splicing, exons are ligated together and introns are removed as lariats by the spliceosomal machinery. The removal of introns is catalyzed by RNA portions of the spliceosome – particularly the U2 and U6 snRNAs that hybridize to the sequences of the branched RNA intron.
Here we describe the use of melting point (Tm ) to investigate the stability of distinctive duplexes which resemble those found within the spliceosome. Although the Tm is a well-established method for determining duplex stability, no data exists on duplex RNAs which include a backbone-branched RNA strand as would be found in splicing intermediates. This investigation of duplex stabilities will increase knowledge of the structure and function of the catalytic core of the spliceosome, and facilitate the development of in vitro splicing assays.
Keywords: Tm , RNA duplex, Spliceosome