Open AccessEvidence from UV transcription mapping in HeLa cells that heterogeneous nuclear RNA is the messenger RNA precursor.
Author(s) -
Seth Goldberg,
Helen E. Schwartz,
James Darnell
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.011
H-Index - 771
eISSN - 1091-6490
pISSN - 0027-8424
DOI - 10.1073/pnas.74.10.4520
Subject(s) - precursor mrna , messenger rna , microbiology and biotechnology , transcription (linguistics) , rna , hela , biology , small nuclear rna , uridine , cell nucleus , cell , chemistry , rna splicing , rna dependent rna polymerase , biochemistry , nucleus , gene , linguistics , philosophy
The effects of UV irradiation on the incorporation of [3H]uridine in HeLa (human) cell mRNA, rRNA, heterogeneous nuclear RNA (hnRNA) and early mRNA from adenovirus type 2 have been compared. The UV target size of cell mRNA is at least 3 times larger than the average size of the mRNA itself and larger than the adenovirus-2 early mRNA, which is known to derive from transcription units of about 1.5-5.0 kilobases. The UV target size of hnRNA, in contrast, is about the same as its size determined by sedimentation and overlaps with the target size of mRNA. It is concluded that most mRNA derives from a higher molecular weight hnRNA molecule.