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Updated: Mar 26, 2026

Analysis of Spliceosomal snRNA Localization in Human Hela Cells Using Microinjection
Published on: August 6, 2019
Conserved structure of Snu13 from the highly reduced spliceosome of Cyanidioschyzon merolae
C S Black1, E L Garside2, A M MacMillan2
1Department of Chemistry, University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, British Columbia, V2N 4Z9, Canada.
Abstract:
Structural and functional analysis of proteins involved in pre-mRNA splicing is challenging because of the complexity of the splicing machinery, known as the spliceosome. Bioinformatic, proteomic, and biochemical analyses have identified a minimal spliceosome in the red alga Cyanidioschyzon merolae. This spliceosome consists of only 40 core proteins, compared to ∼ 70 in S. cerevisiae (yeast) and ∼ 150 in humans. We report the X-ray crystallographic analysis of C. merolae Snu13 (CmSnu13), a key component of the assembling spliceosome, and present evidence for conservation of Snu13 function in this algal splicing pathway. The near identity of CmSnu13's three-dimensional structure to yeast and human Snu13 suggests that C. merolae should be an excellent model system for investigating the structure and function of the conserved core of the spliceosome.
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