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A new role for the spliceosome in the regulation of gene expression

Through a genome wide study of spliceosome recruitment in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, we were able to identify a set of protein-coding genes that despite the fact that they contain no introns and their mRNA is not known to be spliced; their loci were occupied by the spliceosome. Bioinformatic analysis revealed the existence of splicing signals on these genes. Detailed analysis of BDF2, a representative gene, revealed that the spliceosome negatively regulates its mRNA levels through an unconventional one-step splicing reaction that cleaves BDF2 mRNA and targets the cleavage products for degradation. In an effort to clarify the mechanism of spliceosome recruitment to BDF2 locus, we identified that Bdf1, the redundant to Bdf2 factor, is required for the recruitment of the spliceosome at BDF2 and the subsequent down-regulation of its mRNA levels. The above led us to propose a new role for the spliceosome in the regulation of gene expression. Finally, we investigated the generality of this regulatory mechanism is S. cerevisiae and identified a set of genes which can be differentially spliced and whose physiological expression could be potentially regulated by the spliceosome.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:588399
Date January 2012
CreatorsVolanakis, Adam
ContributorsVasilieva, Lidia
PublisherUniversity of Oxford
Source SetsEthos UK
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
Sourcehttp://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:a9abdbe3-b17b-4180-b9bb-7d6020f9d5e5

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