Structural & functional studies of the spliceosome
The majority of eukaryotic genes contain non-coding intervening sequences known as introns. Introns are excised from mRNA precursors (pre-mRNA) and exons are spliced together to form continuous protein coding sequences. This reaction is catalysed by the large RNA-protein assembly called the spliceosome. We determine the structure of key RNA-protein and protein-protein complexes that constitute the active centre of the spliceosome.
Keywords
RNA splicing / structural biology / RNA-protein interactions / crystallography