U1 is a

small nuclear RNA Small nuclear RNA (snRNA) is a class of small RNA molecules that are found within the Cell nucleus#Splicing speckles, splicing speckles and Cajal body, Cajal bodies of the cell nucleus in eukaryotic cells. The length of an average snRNA is approxi ...

(snRNA) component of the

spliceosome A spliceosome is a large ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complex found primarily within the nucleus of eukaryotic cells. The spliceosome is assembled from small nuclear RNAs ( snRNA) and numerous proteins. Small nuclear RNA (snRNA) molecules bind to sp ...

and is involved in pre-mRNA splicing. In the splicing process the 5' end of the U1 snRNA forms complementary

base pairing A base pair (bp) is a fundamental unit of double-stranded nucleic acids consisting of two nucleobases bound to each other by hydrogen bonds. They form the building blocks of the DNA double helix and contribute to the folded structure of both DNA ...

with the 5' splice junction of the intron to be excised, thus defining the 5' donor site of an intron. There are significant differences in sequence and secondary structure between

metazoan Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the biological kingdom Animalia (). With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, have myocytes and are able to move, can reproduce sexually, and grow from a ho ...

and yeast U1 snRNAs, the latter being much longer (568 nucleotides as compared to 164 nucleotides in human). Nevertheless, secondary structure predictions suggest that all U1 snRNAs share a 'common core' consisting of helices I, II, the proximal region of III, and IV. The secondary structure model shows the structure prediction for the larger yeast sequences.

References

External links

* Small nuclear RNA Spliceosome RNA splicing {{molecular-cell-biology-stub