Spliceosomal small nuclear RNAs of Tetrahymena thermophila and some possible snRNA-snRNA base-pairing interactions

Abstract

We have identified and characterized the full set of spliceosomal small nuclear RNAs (snRNAs; U1, U2, U4, U5 and U6) from the ciliated protozoan Tetrahymena thermophila. With the exception of U4 snRNA, the sizes of the T. thermophila snRNAs are closely similar to their metazoan homologues. The T. thermophila snRNAs all have unique 5′ ends, which start with an adenine residue. In contrast, with the exception of U6, their 3′ ends show some size heterogeneity. The primary sequences of the T. thermophila snRNAs contain the sequence motifs shown, or proposed, to be of functional importance in other organisms. Furthermore, secondary structures closely similar to phylogenetically proven models can be inferred from the T. thermophila data. Analysis of the snRNA sequences identifies three potential snRNA-snRNA base-pairing interactions, all of which are consistent with available phylogenetic data. Two of these occur between U2 and U6, whereas the third occurs between U1 and U2. The proposed interactions locate the intron 5′ splice-site close to the intron branch-site nucleotide as well as to the most highly conserved domain of U6. We envisage that these interactions may facilitate the first step of pre-mRNA splicing.