Journal
CELLULAR AND MOLECULAR LIFE SCIENCES
Volume 65, Issue 7-8, Pages 1176-1185Publisher
SPRINGER BASEL AG
DOI: 10.1007/s00018-008-7393-y
Keywords
tRNA maturation; splicing; endonuclease; intron; phosphoryl bond cleavage; enzyme structure and function; RNA-protein interaction
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Funding
- NIGMS NIH HHS [R01 GM099604] Funding Source: Medline
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The RNA-splicing endonuclease is an evolutionarily conserved enzyme responsible for the excision of introns from nuclear transfer RNA (tRNA) and all archaeal RNAs. Since its first identification from yeast in the late 1970s, significant progress has been made toward understanding the biochemical mechanisms of this enzyme. Four families of the splicing endonucleases possessing the same active sites and overall architecture but with different subunit compositions have been identified. Two related consensus structures of the precursor RNA splice sites and the critical elements required for intron excision have been established. More recently, a glimpse was obtained of the structural mechanism by which the endonuclease recognizes the consensus RNA structures and cleaves at the splice sites. This review summarizes these findings and discusses their implications in the evolution of intron removal processes.
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