Pre-mRNA Processing

he past fifteen years have seen tremendous growth in our understanding of T the many post-transcriptional processing steps involved in producing func­ tional eukaryotic mRNA from primary gene transcripts (pre-mRNA). New processing reactions, such as splicing and RNA editing, have been discovered and detailed biochemical and genetic studies continue to yield important new insights into the reaction mechanisms and molecular interactions involved. It is now apparent that regulation of RNA processing plays a significant role in the control of gene expression and development. An increased understanding of RNA processing mechanisms has also proved to be of considerable clinical importance in the pathology of inherited disease and viral infection. This volume seeks to review the rapid progress being made in the study of how mRNA precursors are processed into mRNA and to convey the broad scope of the RNA field and its relevance to other areas of cell biology and medicine. Since one of the major themes of RNA processing is the recognition of specific RNA sequences and structures by protein factors, we begin with reviews of RNA-protein interactions. In chapter 1 David Lilley presents an overview of RNA structure and illustrates how the structural features of RNA molecules are exploited for specific recognition by protein, while in chapter 2 Maurice Swanson discusses the structure and function of the large family of hnRNP proteins that bind to pre-mRNA. The next four chapters focus on pre-mRNA splicing. Front Matter....Pages N1-xii RNA Structure and Interactions With Proteins....Pages 1-15 Functions of Nuclear Pre-mRNA/mRNA Binding Proteins....Pages 17-33 The Biochemistry of PRE-mRNA Splicing....Pages 35-64 Pre-mRNA Splicing in Plants....Pages 65-77 Yeast Splicing Factors and Genetic Strategies for Their Analysis....Pages 79-95 Mechanisms of Regulated Pre-mRNA Splicing....Pages 97-112 3′-End Cleavage and polyadenylation of nuclear Messenger RNA Precursors....Pages 113-134 Strategies for Regulating Nuclear pre-mRNA Polyadenylation....Pages 135-149 RNA Editing....Pages 151-161 Nuclear Organization of snRNPs and Splicing Factors....Pages 163-171 Export of mRNA Through the Nuclear Pore Complex....Pages 173-186 Clinical Defects in Pre-mRNA Processing....Pages 187-201 Viral Strategies Affecting RNA Processing in Mammalian Cells....Pages 203-214 Back Matter....Pages 215-223 This book is about the formation of functional mRNA from primary gene transcripts (pre-mRNA) in eukaryotic cells. It concentrates on the major RNA processing reactions that generate spliced and polyadenylated mRNA in the nucleus. The last ten years have seen a tremendous growth in our understanding of the splicing and polyadenylation mechanisms and new processing reactions, such as RNA editing, have been discovered. Individual chapters review RNA structure, protein-RNA interactions and biochemical and genetic studies in mammalian, yeast and plant cells that have contributed to our current picture of how mRNA is formed and transported to the cytoplasm. Other chapters discuss new insights into the mechanisms of viral infection and inherited disease that have emerged from research in the RNA processing field