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Processing of polycistronic guide RNAs is associated with RNA editing complexes in Trypanosoma brucei
Author(s) -
Grams Jayleen,
McManus Michael T.,
Hajduk Stephen L.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
the embo journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 7.484
H-Index - 392
eISSN - 1460-2075
pISSN - 0261-4189
DOI - 10.1093/emboj/19.20.5525
Subject(s) - biology , trypanosoma brucei , rna editing , rna , rna processing , guide rna , messenger rna , genetics , rna silencing , non coding rna , computational biology , rna interference , gene , genome editing , genome
In kinetoplastid mitochondrial mRNA editing, post‐transcriptional insertion or deletion of uridines is templated by guide RNAs (gRNAs). Pre‐mRNAs are encoded by maxicircles, while gRNAs are encoded by both maxicircles and minicircles. We have investigated minicircle transcription and the processing of gRNAs in Trypanosoma brucei . We find that minicircles are transcribed polycistronically and that transcripts are accurately processed by an ∼19S complex. This gRNA processing activity co‐purifies with RNA editing complexes, and both remain associated in 19S complexes. Furthermore, we show that RNA editing complexes associate preferentially with a polycistronic gRNA over non‐processed RNAs. We propose that the ∼19S complexes initially described as RNA editing complex I are gRNA processing complexes that cleave polycistronic gRNA transcripts into monocistrons.