Identification of the RNA2 protein of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The rna2-1 mutant of Saccharomyces cerevisiae has a conditional lethal phenotype, accumulating high molecular weight RNAs of intron-containing nuclear genes at 36 degrees C. The cloned RNA2 gene suppresses this phenotype and the RNA2 gene product has been implicated in RNA splicing. Rabbit antisera have been raised against an N-terminal synthetic peptide taken from the RNA2 gene DNA sequence data, and against a beta-galactosidase/RNA2 gene fusion protein. Both antisera identify the same 97-105 kd protein from S. cerevisiae cell extracts which is consistent with the predicted size of the RNA2 protein (from the 2800 nucleotide transcript size and DNA sequence data).