The pre-mRNA splicing reaction of eukaryotic cells has to be carried out extremely accurately, as failure to recognize the splice sites correctly causes serious disease. The small subunit of the U2AF heterodimer is essential for the determination of 3' splice sites in pre-mRNA splicing, and several single-residue mutations of the U2AF small subunit cause severe disorders such as myelodysplastic syndromes. However, the mechanism of RNA recognition is poorly understood. Here we solved the crystal structure of the U2AF small subunit (U2AF23) from fission yeast, consisting of an RNA recognition motif (RRM) domain flanked by two conserved CCCH-type zinc fingers (ZFs). The two ZFs are positioned side by side on the β sheet of the RRM domain. Further mutational analysis revealed that the ZFs bind cooperatively to the target RNA sequence, but the RRM domain acts simply as a scaffold to organize the ZFs and does not itself contact the RNA directly. This completely novel and unexpected mode of RNA-binding mechanism by the U2AF small subunit sheds light on splicing errors caused by mutations of this highly conserved protein.
Pubmed ID: 26215567 RIS Download
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Software application for data analysis and graphing. Origin contains a variety of different graph types, including statistical plots, 2D and 3D vector graphs, and counter graphs. More advance version is OriginPro which offers advanced analysis tools and Apps for Peak Fitting, Surface Fitting, Statistics and Signal Processing.
View all literature mentionsA molecular refinement program with two main modes: REVIEW, which checks and updates the input model to establish that the geometric restraints can be properly set up, and REFINE mode, which is the standard mode and documented in keywords. In REVIEW users can: check model coordinates and write an extended output set of coordinates, find disulphide bonds and other covalent links, cis-peptides, output the sequence and REMARK records. In REFINEMENT mode users can carry out rigid body, tls, restrained or unrestrained refinement against Xray data, or idealisation of a macromolecular structure. Also in REFINEMENT mode, Refmac produces an MTZ output file containing weighted coefficients for SigmaA weighted mFo-DFcalc and 2mFo-DFcalc maps. The program is supported by CCP4.
View all literature mentionsSoftware toolkit for small-angle scattering data analysis from biological macromolecules.
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