Small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) can be divided into two large families based on conserved sequence elements. These two classes are the box C/D snoRNAs and the box H/ACA snoRNAs. At the onset of this thesis study, a small number of snoRNAs were known to be required for processing (cleavage) of pre-ribosomal RNA; the function of majority of snoRNAs remained an enigma. The thesis research revealed two important and exciting discoveries: (1) the box C/D snoRNAs are mainly involved in guiding the formation of 2$\sp\prime$-O-methylation in rRNA, and; (2) most box HACA snoRNAs direct $\Psi$ modification of rRNA. Taken together, I demonstrated that the main function of the snoRNAs is nucleotide modification of ribosomal RNA.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UMASS/oai:scholarworks.umass.edu:dissertations-3114 |
| Date | 01 January 1998 |
| Creators | Ni, Jingwei |
| Publisher | ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst |
| Source Sets | University of Massachusetts, Amherst |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Source | Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest |
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