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Rules of engagement: co-transcriptional recruitment of pre-mRNA processing factors

2005; Elsevier BV; Volume: 17; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.ceb.2005.04.006

1879-0410

David L. Bentley,

RNA modifications and cancer

The universal pre-mRNA processing events of 5′ end capping, splicing, and 3′ end formation by cleavage/polyadenylation occur co-transcriptionally. As a result, the substrate for mRNA processing factors is a nascent RNA chain that is being extruded from the RNA polymerase II exit channel at 10–30 bases per second. How do processing factors find their substrate RNAs and complete most mRNA maturation before transcription is finished? Recent studies suggest that this task is facilitated by a combination of protein–RNA and protein–protein interactions within a ‘mRNA factory’ that comprises the elongating RNA polymerase and associated processing factors. This ‘factory’ undergoes dynamic changes in composition as it traverses a gene and provides the setting for regulatory interactions that couple processing to transcriptional elongation and termination.