Antisense Transcripts Delimit Exonucleolytic Activity of the Mitochondrial 3' Processome to Generate Guide RNAs.

Mol Cell, 2016/2/04;61(3):364-378.

Suematsu T[1], Zhang L[2], Aphasizheva I[1], Monti S[2], Huang L[3], Wang Q[4], Costello CE[4], Aphasizhev R[5]

Affiliations

PMID: 26833087DOI: 10.1016/j.molcel.2016.01.004

Impact factor: 19.328

Abstract
Small, noncoding RNA biogenesis typically involves cleavage of structured precursor by RNase III-like endonucleases. However, guide RNAs (gRNAs) that direct U-insertion/deletion mRNA editing in mitochondria of trypanosomes maintain 5' triphosphate characteristic of the transcription initiation and possess a U-tail indicative of 3' processing and uridylation. Here, we identified a protein complex composed of RET1 TUTase, DSS1 3'-5' exonuclease, and three additional subunits. This complex, termed mitochondrial 3' processome (MPsome), is responsible for primary uridylation of ∼800 nt gRNA precursors, their processive degradation to a mature size of 40-60 nt, and secondary U-tail addition. Both strands of the gRNA gene are transcribed into sense and antisense precursors of similar lengths. Head-to-head hybridization of these transcripts blocks symmetrical 3'-5' degradation at a fixed distance from the double-stranded region. Together, our findings suggest a model in which gRNA is derived from the 5' extremity of a primary molecule by uridylation-induced, antisense transcription-controlled 3'-5' exonucleolytic degradation.

Keywords: RNA decay; RNA editing; TUTase; exonuclease; guide RNA; mitochondria; trypanosoma

MeSH terms
More resources
EndNote: Download