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Updated: Aug 9, 2026

Using the E1A Minigene Tool to Study mRNA Splicing Changes
Published on: April 22, 2021
cis-splicing and polyadenylation of actin RNA can precede 5' trans-splicing in nematodes
1Department of Biochemistry, University of Iowa, Iowa City 52242, USA.
Abstract:
In nematodes many precursor RNAs undergo both cis-splicing (intron removal) and trans-splicing (spliced leader addition) via molecular mechanisms thought to be very similar. We examined the temporal order of trans- and cis-splicing by analyzing cDNAs of partially processed transcripts from an actin gene of the parasitic nematode, Onchocerca volvulus, which has five short introns. We found that in this model gene system trans-splicing can follow cis-splicing and polyadenylation, and we obtained no evidence for alternative pathways of splicing. This result is in contrast to the tubulin genes of African trypanosomes where trans-splicing precedes polyadenylation (1).
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