Structural insights into intron catalysis and dynamics during splicing

Ling Xu (), Tianshuo Liu, Kevin Chung and Anna Marie Pyle ()
Additional contact information
Ling Xu: Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Tianshuo Liu: Yale University
Kevin Chung: Yale University
Anna Marie Pyle: Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Nature, 2023, vol. 624, issue 7992, 682-688

Abstract: Abstract The group II intron ribonucleoprotein is an archetypal splicing system with numerous mechanistic parallels to the spliceosome, including excision of lariat introns1,2. Despite the importance of branching in RNA metabolism, structural understanding of this process has remained elusive. Here we present a comprehensive analysis of three single-particle cryogenic electron microscopy structures captured along the splicing pathway. They reveal the network of molecular interactions that specifies the branchpoint adenosine and positions key functional groups to catalyse lariat formation and coordinate exon ligation. The structures also reveal conformational rearrangements of the branch helix and the mechanism of splice site exchange that facilitate the transition from branching to ligation. These findings shed light on the evolution of splicing and highlight the conservation of structural components, catalytic mechanism and dynamical strategies retained through time in premessenger RNA splicing machines.

Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06746-6 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:624:y:2023:i:7992:d:10.1038_s41586-023-06746-6

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06746-6

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().