Pseudouridine: still mysterious, but never a fake (uridine)!

Abstract

Pseudouridine (Ψ) is the most abundant of >150 nucleoside modifications in RNA. Although Ψ was discovered as the first modified nucleoside more than half a century ago, neither the enzymatic mechanism of its formation, nor the function of this modification are fully elucidated. We present the consistent picture of Ψ synthases, their substrates and their substrate positions in model organisms of all domains of life as it has emerged to date and point out the challenges that remain concerning higher eukaryotes and the elucidation of the enzymatic mechanism.

Keywords: E. coli, Escherichia coli; H. volcanii, Haloferax volcanii and/or Halobacterium volcanii.; Pus, pseudouridine synthase; RNA Modification; S. cerevisiae, Saccharomyces cerevisiae; S. typhimurium, Salmonella typhimurium; enzymatic mechanism; modified nucleoside; pseudouridine; rRNA; rRNA, ribosomal RNA; regulation; snRNA; snRNA, small nuclear RNA; tRNA; Ψ, Psi, pseudouridine.