Humanization and characterization of the S. cerevisiae splicing factor Prp8 for drug screening

Abstract

To remove non-coding regions (introns) from pre-mRNA and splice together exons, eukaryotes rely on the spliceosome, which itself is made up of five small nuclear RNAs and dozens of proteins. RNA splicing is essential for eukaryotic gene expression and it has recently emerged as an attractive drug target. One essential splicing factor is pre-mRNA processing protein 8 (Prp8), which helps to scaffold the active site during both catalytic steps of splicing. The human homolog, PRPF8, shares 60% sequence homology to yeast Prp8.