Eukaryotic Cell doi:10.1128/EC.00059-07
Copyright (c) 2007, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.
Functional Characterization of Spliceosomal Introns and Identification of U2, U4, and U5 snRNAs in the Deep-branching Eukaryote Entamoeba histolytica
Carrie A. Davis,
Michael P.S. Brown,
and
Upinder Singh*
Departments of Microbiology and Immunology and Internal Medicine; Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California 94305-5124
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email:
usingh{at}stanford.edu.
 |
Abstract |
|---|
Pre-mRNA splicing is essential to ensure accurate expression of many genes in eukaryotic organisms. In Entamoeba histolytica, a deep-branching eukaryote, approximately, 30% of the annotated genes are predicted to contain introns, however, the accuracy of these predictions has gone untested. In this paper, we mined an EST library representing 7% of amoebic genes and find evidence supporting splicing of 60% of the testable intron predictions, the majority of which contain a GUUUGU 5' splice site and a UAG 3' splice site. Additionally, we identified several splice site misannotations, present evidence for the existence of 30 novel introns in previously annotated genes, and identify novel genes through uncovering their spliced ESTs. Finally, we provide molecular evidence for the E. histolytica U2, U4 and U5 snRNAs. These data lay the foundation for further dissecting the role of RNA processing in E. histolytica.
Previous Article | Next Article 
