The mechanisms controlling ribosomal protein L1 pre-mRNA splicing are maintained in evolution and rely on conserved intron sequences

Nucleic Acids Res. 1992 Sep 11;20(17):4473-9. doi: 10.1093/nar/20.17.4473.

Abstract

Sequences corresponding to the third intron of the X.laevis L1 ribosomal protein gene were isolated from the second copy of the X.laevis gene and from the single copy of X.tropicalis. Sequence comparison revealed that the three introns share an unusual sequence conservation which spans a region of 110 nucleotides. In addition, they have the same suboptimal 5' splice sites. The three introns show similar features upon oocyte microinjection: they have very low splicing efficiency and undergo the same site specific cleavages which lead to the accumulation of truncated molecules. Computer analysis and RNAse digestions have allowed to assign to the conserved region a specific secondary structure. Mutational analysis has shown that this structure is important for conferring the cleavage phenotype to these three introns. Competition experiments show that the cleavage phenotype can be prevented by coinjection of excess amounts of homologous sequences.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Base Sequence
  • Biological Evolution
  • Cloning, Molecular
  • Introns / genetics*
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Mutagenesis / genetics
  • Nucleic Acid Conformation
  • RNA Precursors / genetics
  • RNA Precursors / metabolism*
  • RNA Splicing / genetics
  • RNA Splicing / physiology*
  • Ribosomal Proteins / genetics*
  • Ribosomal Proteins / metabolism
  • Xenopus laevis / genetics*
  • Xenopus laevis / metabolism

Substances

  • RNA Precursors
  • Ribosomal Proteins
  • ribosomal protein L1

Associated data

  • GENBANK/X67691
  • GENBANK/X67692