290 Spliceosomal UsnRNP biogenesis, structure and function Cindy L Will* and Reinhard Lührmann† Significant advances have been made in elucidating the for each of the two reaction steps. Components of the biogenesis pathway and three-dimensional structure of the UsnRNPs also appear to catalyze the two transesterifi- UsnRNPs, the building blocks of the spliceosome. U2 and cation reactions leading to excision of the intron and U4/U6•U5 tri-snRNPs functionally associate with the pre-mRNA ligation of the 5′ and 3′ exons. Here we describe recent at an earlier stage of spliceosome assembly than previously advances in our understanding of snRNP biogenesis, thought, and additional evidence supporting UsnRNA-mediated structure and function, focusing primarily on the major catalysis of pre-mRNA splicing has been presented. spliceosomal UsnRNPs from higher eukaryotes. Addresses Identification of a novel UsnRNA export factor Max Planck Institute of Biophysical Chemistry, Department of Cellular UsnRNP biogenesis is a complex process, many aspects of Biochemistry, Am Fassberg 11, 37077 Göttingen, Germany. which remain poorly understood. Although less is known *e-mail:
[email protected] about the maturation process of the minor U11, U12 and †e-mail:
[email protected] U4atac UsnRNPs, it is assumed that they follow a pathway Current Opinion in Cell Biology 2001, 13:290–301 similar to that described below for the major UsnRNPs 0955-0674/01/$ — see front matter (see Figure 1). The UsnRNAs, with the exception of U6 © 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. and U6atac (see below), are transcribed by RNA polymerase II as snRNA precursors that contain additional Abbreviations ′ CBC cap-binding complex 3 nucleotides and acquire a monomethylated, m7GpppG NLS nuclear localization signal (m7G) cap structure.