Skip to main content
PMC home page
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1986 Nov;83(21):8097–8101. doi: 10.1073/pnas.83.21.8097

Small nuclear RNAs from Saccharomyces cerevisiae: unexpected diversity in abundance, size, and molecular complexity.

N Riedel, J A Wise, H Swerdlow, A Mak, C Guthrie
PMCID: PMC386874  PMID: 3534883

Abstract

Previous work showed that the simple eukaryote Saccharomyces cerevisiae contains a group of RNAs with the general structural properties predicted for small nuclear RNAs (snRNAs), including possession of the characteristic trimethylguanosine 5'-terminal cap. It was also demonstrated that, unlike their metazoan counterparts, the yeast snRNAs are present in low abundance (200-500 molecules per haploid cell). We have now used antibody directed against the 5' cap to investigate the total set size of snRNAs in this organism. We present evidence that the number of distinct yeast snRNAs is on the order of several dozen, that the length of the capped RNAs can exceed 1000 nucleotides, and that the relative abundance of a subset of these RNAs is 1/5th to 1/20th that of the class of snRNAs described previously. These findings suggest that the six highly abundant species of snRNAs (U1-U6) typically reported in metazoans may represent a serious underestimation of the total diversity of snRNAs in eukaryotes.

Full text

PDF
8097

Images in this article

8098Image
on p.8098
8099Image
on p.8099
8099Image
on p.8099
8099Image
on p.8099
8099Image
on p.8099
8099Image
on p.8099
8099Image
on p.8099
8099Image
on p.8099
8100Image
on p.8100

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Berget S. M. Are U4 small nuclear ribonucleoproteins involved in polyadenylation? Nature. 1984 May 10;309(5964):179–182. doi: 10.1038/309179a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Black D. L., Chabot B., Steitz J. A. U2 as well as U1 small nuclear ribonucleoproteins are involved in premessenger RNA splicing. Cell. 1985 Oct;42(3):737–750. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(85)90270-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Busch H., Reddy R., Rothblum L., Choi Y. C. SnRNAs, SnRNPs, and RNA processing. Annu Rev Biochem. 1982;51:617–654. doi: 10.1146/annurev.bi.51.070182.003153. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Chabot B., Black D. L., LeMaster D. M., Steitz J. A. The 3' splice site of pre-messenger RNA is recognized by a small nuclear ribonucleoprotein. Science. 1985 Dec 20;230(4732):1344–1349. doi: 10.1126/science.2933810. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. England T. E., Uhlenbeck O. C. 3'-terminal labelling of RNA with T4 RNA ligase. Nature. 1978 Oct 12;275(5680):560–561. doi: 10.1038/275560a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Galli G., Hofstetter H., Stunnenberg H. G., Birnstiel M. L. Biochemical complementation with RNA in the Xenopus oocyte: a small RNA is required for the generation of 3' histone mRNA termini. Cell. 1983 Oct;34(3):823–828. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(83)90539-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Hashimoto C., Steitz J. A. A small nuclear ribonucleoprotein associates with the AAUAAA polyadenylation signal in vitro. Cell. 1986 May 23;45(4):581–591. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(86)90290-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Kafatos F. C., Jones C. W., Efstratiadis A. Determination of nucleic acid sequence homologies and relative concentrations by a dot hybridization procedure. Nucleic Acids Res. 1979 Nov 24;7(6):1541–1552. doi: 10.1093/nar/7.6.1541. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Krainer A. R., Maniatis T. Multiple factors including the small nuclear ribonucleoproteins U1 and U2 are necessary for pre-mRNA splicing in vitro. Cell. 1985 Oct;42(3):725–736. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(85)90269-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Krämer A., Keller W., Appel B., Lührmann R. The 5' terminus of the RNA moiety of U1 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein particles is required for the splicing of messenger RNA precursors. Cell. 1984 Aug;38(1):299–307. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(84)90551-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Lund E., Bostock C., Robertson M., Christie S., Mitchen J. L., Dahlberg J. E. U1 small nuclear RNA genes are located on human chromosome 1 and are expressed in mouse-human hybrid cells. Mol Cell Biol. 1983 Dec;3(12):2211–2220. doi: 10.1128/mcb.3.12.2211. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Moore C. L., Sharp P. A. Accurate cleavage and polyadenylation of exogenous RNA substrate. Cell. 1985 Jul;41(3):845–855. doi: 10.1016/s0092-8674(85)80065-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Mount S. M., Pettersson I., Hinterberger M., Karmas A., Steitz J. A. The U1 small nuclear RNA-protein complex selectively binds a 5' splice site in vitro. Cell. 1983 Jun;33(2):509–518. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(83)90432-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Padgett R. A., Mount S. M., Steitz J. A., Sharp P. A. Splicing of messenger RNA precursors is inhibited by antisera to small nuclear ribonucleoprotein. Cell. 1983 Nov;35(1):101–107. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(83)90212-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Prestayko A. W., Tonato M., Busch H. Low molecular weight RNA associated with 28 s nucleolar RNA. J Mol Biol. 1970 Feb 14;47(3):505–515. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(70)90318-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Reddy R., Henning D., Busch H. Primary and secondary structure of U8 small nuclear RNA. J Biol Chem. 1985 Sep 15;260(20):10930–10935. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Reddy R., Henning D., Busch H. Substitutions, insertions, and deletions in two highly conserved U3 RNA species. J Biol Chem. 1980 Jul 25;255(14):7029–7033. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Strub K., Galli G., Busslinger M., Birnstiel M. L. The cDNA sequences of the sea urchin U7 small nuclear RNA suggest specific contacts between histone mRNA precursor and U7 RNA during RNA processing. EMBO J. 1984 Dec 1;3(12):2801–2807. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1984.tb02212.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Stunnenberg H. G., Birnstiel M. L. Bioassay for components regulating eukaryotic gene expression: a chromosomal factor involved in the generation of histone mRNA 3' termini. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1982 Oct;79(20):6201–6204. doi: 10.1073/pnas.79.20.6201. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Tanaka T., Weisblum B. Construction of a colicin E1-R factor composite plasmid in vitro: means for amplification of deoxyribonucleic acid. J Bacteriol. 1975 Jan;121(1):354–362. doi: 10.1128/jb.121.1.354-362.1975. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Tollervey D., Guthrie C. Deletion of a yeast small nuclear RNA gene impairs growth. EMBO J. 1985 Dec 30;4(13B):3873–3878. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1985.tb04160.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Tollervey D., Wise J. A., Guthrie C. A U4-like small nuclear RNA is dispensable in yeast. Cell. 1983 Dec;35(3 Pt 2):753–762. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(83)90108-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Van Arsdell S. W., Weiner A. M. Human genes for U2 small nuclear RNA are tandemly repeated. Mol Cell Biol. 1984 Mar;4(3):492–499. doi: 10.1128/mcb.4.3.492. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Weinberg R. A., Penman S. Small molecular weight monodisperse nuclear RNA. J Mol Biol. 1968 Dec;38(3):289–304. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(68)90387-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Wise J. A., Tollervey D., Maloney D., Swerdlow H., Dunn E. J., Guthrie C. Yeast contains small nuclear RNAs encoded by single copy genes. Cell. 1983 Dec;35(3 Pt 2):743–751. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(83)90107-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Zieve G., Penman S. Small RNA species of the HeLa cell: metabolism and subcellular localization. Cell. 1976 May;8(1):19–31. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(76)90181-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America are provided here courtesy of National Academy of Sciences

RESOURCES