Spliceosomal snRNA Epitranscriptomics

Frontiers in Genetics, vol. 12, pp. 652129

Abstract

Small nuclear RNAs (snRNAs) are critical components of the spliceosome that catalyze the splicing of pre-mRNA. snRNAs are each complexed with many proteins to form RNA-protein complexes, termed as small nuclear ribonucleoproteins (snRNPs), in the cell nucleus. snRNPs participate in pre-mRNA splicing by recognizing the critical sequence elements present in the introns, thereby forming active spliceosomes. The recognition is achieved primarily by base-pairing interactions (or nucleotide-nucleotide contact) between snRNAs and pre-mRNA. Notably, snRNAs are extensively modified with different RNA modifications, which confer unique properties to the RNAs. Here, we review the current knowledge of the mechanisms and functions of snRNA modifications and their biological relevance in the splicing process.

Authors 3

1. Pedro Morais corresponding Aachen ProQR Therapeutics

   ProQR Therapeutics (Netherlands)

   Affiliation as printed

   ProQR Therapeutics, Leiden, Netherlands

2. Hironori Adachi

   University of Rochester · University of Rochester Medicine

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Center for RNA Biology, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, United States

3. Yi‐Tao Yu corresponding

   University of Rochester · University of Rochester Medicine

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Center for RNA Biology, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, United States