Spliceosomal snRNAs in the unicellular eukaryote Trichomonas vaginalis are structurally conserved but lack a 5'-cap structure.

ABSTRACT: Few genes in the divergent eukaryote Trichomonas vaginalis have introns, despite the unusually large gene repertoire of this human-infective parasite. These introns are characterized by extended conserved regulatory motifs at the 5' and 3' boundaries, a feature shared with another divergent eukaryote, Giardia lamblia, but not with metazoan introns. This unusual characteristic of T. vaginalis introns led us to examine spliceosomal small nuclear RNAs (snRNAs) predicted to mediate splicing reactions via interaction with intron motifs. Here we identify T. vaginalis U1, U2, U4, U5, and U6 snRNAs, present predictions of their secondary structures, and provide evidence for interaction between the U2/U6 snRNA complex and a T. vaginalis intron. Structural models predict that T. vaginalis snRNAs con

SUBMITTER: Simoes-Barbosa A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2491460 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature