Structural insights into the 3'-end mRNA maturation machinery: Snapshot on polyadenylation signal recognition

Pre-mRNA 3'-end maturation is achieved by a mechanism requiring four different protein complexes assembled from approximately twenty factors. A global understanding of this essential process is still missing due to the inability to structurally characterize the entire complexes, even though structures of the isolated factors have been obtained. In this review, we summarize recent findings regarding the atomic description of one of the major players, the Cleavage and Polyadenylation Specificity Factor complex (CPSF in human, CPF in yeast). These data provide information on the architecture adopted by the major components of this complex, and on its capacity to recognize the polyadenylation signal sequence.