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Updated: Sep 27, 2026

Production of Xenopus tropicalis Egg Extracts to Identify Microtubule-associated RNAs
Published on: June 27, 2013
Exonucleolytic degradation of double-stranded RNA by an activity in Xenopus laevis germinal vesicles
Paolo Fruscoloni1, Michela Zamboni, M Irene Baldi
1Istituto di Biologia Cellulare, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Campus A. Buzzati-Traverso,Via Ramarini, 32, 00016 Monterotondo Scalo, Rome, Italy.
Abstract:
We have identified, in extracts from Xenopus laevis germinal vesicles, a 5' exonuclease activity that cleaves double-stranded RNA (dsRNA). Features of the 5' ends of dsRNAs determine whether the strands are symmetrically or asymmetrically degraded. The activity hydrolyzes in the 5' to 3' direction, releasing 5'-mononucleotides processively, favoring strands with 5'-monophosphate termini; molecules with capped ends are resistant to digestion. Because of its ability to processively digest dsRNA to mononucleotides, we have named the exonuclease Chipper, which could cooperate or compete with Dicer (an endonuclease that produces molecules with a 5'-phosphate) in the processing of dsRNA.
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