华人科学家《科学》文章：RNA剪接研究进展

　　

生物通报道：来自佛罗里达州州立大学（Florida State University）分子生物物理学院（Institute of Molecular Biophysics）的李红（Hong Li，音译）和其他研究人员发现了一个Archaeglobus fulgidus的RNA剪接内切酶（RNA splicing endonuclease）对RNA的识别和剪切位点，为RNA研究以及蛋白翻译过程提供了重要资料，这一研究进展公布在5月12日Science杂志上。

RNA剪接（RNA splicing）是指从DNA模板链转录出的最初转录产物中除去内含子，并将外显子连接起来形成一个连续的RNA分子的过程。通过不同方式的RNA剪接，－种基因可在不同的发育分化阶段、不同的生理病理条件或不同的细胞、组织中合成不同的蛋白质。果蝇的性别就是通过不同的剪接途径完成的。

Li等人通过生物物理研究手段发现在Archaeglobus fulgidus的RNA剪接内切酶中一个2.85埃大小的结构可以和RNA bulge-helix-bulge结合，而在这个位点上有一个非剪切位点和一个剪切连接位点。这个内切酶二聚体可以协同的识别出flipped-out bulge碱基，并且使RNA有序剪切反应稳定。（生物通：张迪）

原文：
RNA Recognition and Cleavage by a Splicing Endonuclease
Song Xue, Kate Calvin, and Hong Li
Science 12 May 2006: 906-910.
The two catalytic subunits of a dimeric enzyme that cleaves RNA at two sites interact reciprocally.
Abstract »

Li Hong

Assistant Professor of Chemistry
Institute of Molecular Biophysics, Florida State University

1. Xue, S., Calvin, K., and Li, H. “RNA Recognition and Cleavage by an RNA Splicing Endonuclease” Science (in press)

2. Trotta, C.R., Paushkin, S.V., Patel, M., Li, H. and Peltz, S.W. (2006) A composite active site for cleavage of pre-tRNA by the eukaryal tRNA splicing endonuclease. Nature (in press).

3. Rashid, R., Liang, B., Baker, D.L., Youssef, O.A., He, Y., Phipps, K., Terns, R. M., Terns, M., and Li, H. (2006) Crystal Structure of a Cbf5-Nop10-Gar1 complex and implication in RNA-guided pseudouridylation and dykeratosis congenita. Molecular Cell 21(2):249-260. 

4. Randau, L., Calvin, K., Hall, M., Yuan, J., Podar, M., Li, H., and Soll, D. (2005) The heteromeric Nanoarchaeum equitans splicing endonuclease cleaves noncanonical bulge-helix-bulge motifs of joined tRNA halves. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 102(50):17934-17939.

5. Calvin, K. Hall, M. Xu, F. and Xue, S., and Li, H. (2005) Structure and Function of an Ancient RNA Splicing Endonuclease with Broad Substrate Specificity. Journal of Molecular Biology 353(5):952-960.

6. Oruganti, S., Zhang, Y., and Li, H. (2005) Structural Comparison of Yeast snoRNP and Spliceosomal Protein Snu13p with Its Homologs. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communication 333 (2): 550-554. 

7. Aittaleb, M., Visone, T., Fenley, M. O., and Li, H. (2004) Structural and Thermodynamic Evidence for a Stabilizing Role of Nop5p in S-adenosyl-L-methionine Binding to Fibrillarin. Journal of Biological Chemistry 279 (40): 41822-41829. 

8. Zhang, Y. and Li, H. (2004) Structure Determination of a Truncated Dimeric RNA Splicing Endonuclease in Pseudo-centered Space Group P21212. Acta Crystallographica Section D: Biological Crystallography D60, 447-452.

9. Moore, T., Zhang, Y., Fenley, M. O., and Li, H. (2004) Molecular Basis of Box C/D RNA-protein Interactions: Co-crystal Structure of the Archaeal sRNP Initiation Complex Structure 12(5): 807-18. 

10. Aittaleb, M., Rashid, R., Chen, Q., Palmer, J. R., Daniels, C. J., and Li, H. (2003) Structure and function of archaeal box C/D sRNP core proteins Nature Structure Biology 10, 256-63. 

11. Rashid, R., Aittaleb, M., Chen, Q., Spiegel, K., Demeler, B., and Li, H. (2003) Functional requirement for symmetric assembly of archaeal box C/D small ribonucleoprotein particles Journal of Molecular Biology 333, 295-306.

12. Lima, S., Hildenbrand, J., Korostelev, A., Hattman, S., and Li, H. (2002) Crystal structure of an RNA helix recognized by a zinc-finger protein: an 18-bp duplex at 1.6 Å resolution RNA 8, 924-32. 

13. Story, R. M., Li, H., and Abelson, J. N. (2001) Crystal structure of a DEAD box protein from the hyperthermophile Methanococcus jannaschii Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U S A 98, 1465-70.