title: Identification of SL addition trans-splicing acceptor sites in the internal transcribed spacer I region of pre-rRNA in Leishmania (Leishmania) amazonensis.
abstract: Trypanosomatidae is a family of early branching eukaryotes harbouring a distinctive repertoire of gene expression strategies. Functional mature messenger RNA is generated via the trans-splicing and polyadenylation processing of constitutively transcribed polycistronic units. Recently, trans-splicing of pre-small subunit ribosomal RNA in the 5' external transcribed spacer region and of precursor tRNAsec have been described. Here, we used a previously validated semi-nested reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction strategy to investigate internal transcribed spacer (ITS) I acceptor sites in total RNA from Leishmania (Leishmania) amazonensis. Two distinct spliced leader-containing RNAs were detected indicating that trans-splicing reactions occur at two AG acceptor sites mapped in this ITS region. These data provide further evidence of the wide spectrum of RNA molecules that act as trans-splicing acceptors in trypanosomatids.
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Genética, Instituto Butantan, São Paulo, SP, Brasil.
authors.forename: Mario Gustavo
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Mayer
authors.forename: Lucile Maria
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Floeter-Winter
mesh_terms: D021903:DNA, Ribosomal Spacer / Q000235:genetics*; D007894:Leishmania mexicana / Q000235:genetics*; D012322:RNA Precursors / Q000235:genetics*; D022821:RNA Splice Sites / Q000235:genetics*; D016053:RNA, Protozoan / Q000235:genetics*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D020040:Trans-Splicing / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D021903:DNA, Ribosomal Spacer; D012322:RNA Precursors; D022821:RNA Splice Sites; D016053:RNA, Protozoan