Characterization of U2 snRNA associated proteins: Functional analysis of C. merolae Hsh49 protein

Pre-mRNA splicing is an important process involving the removal of non-coding regions (introns) from messenger RNA. Disruption of this mechanism can cause diseases such as cancer. A particle known as the spliceosome is responsible for recognition and removal of introns. This complex machinery consists of five small nuclear RNAs, U1, U2, U4, U5, and U6, and many proteins. Each snRNA associates with proteins to form small nuclear ribonucleo-proteins or snRNPs. Due to the considerable number of proteins involved in this process in humans, the study of splicing has been a struggle. Cyanidioschyzon merolae (C. merolae) is a unicellular acidophilic red alga that we hope will be a good model for studying splicing factors due to its greatly reduced complexity (only ~70 splicing proteins, compared to ~300 in humans). Thus, we are investigating the interactions of snRNAs with their specific proteins by expressing the entire snRNP particles recombinantly and investigating their function.