Arthropod 7SK RNA.
The 7SK small nuclear RNA (snRNA) is a key player in the regulation of polymerase (pol) II transcription. The 7SK RNA was long believed to be specific to vertebrates where it is highly conserved. Homologs in basal deuterostomes and a few lophotrochozoan species were only recently reported. On longer timescales, 7SK evolves rapidly with only few conserved sequence and structure motifs. Previous attempts to identify the Drosophila homolog thus have remained unsuccessful despite considerable efforts. Here we report on the discovery of arthropod 7SK RNAs using a novel search strategy based on pol III promoters, as well as the subsequent verification of its expression. Our results demonstrate that a 7SK snRNA featuring 2 highly structured conserved domains was present already in the bilaterian ancestor.
Gruber
Andreas R
AR
Institute for Theoretical Chemistry, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria. agruber@tbi.univie.ac.at
Kilgus
Carsten
C
Mosig
Axel
A
Hofacker
Ivo L
IL
Hennig
Wolfgang
W
Stadler
Peter F
PF
D000818:Animals; D001181:Arthropods / Q000235:genetics*; D019295:Computational Biology; D030541:Databases, Genetic; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000235:genetics; D015870:Gene Expression; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D012342:RNA, Small Nuclear / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid
D012342:RNA, Small Nuclear