Nucleic Acids Research, Vol 24, Issue 11 2059-2066, Copyright © 1996 by Oxford University Press
DA Samarsky, GS Schneider and MJ Fournier
U14 is a small nucleolar RNA (snoRNA) required for early cleavages of
eukaryotic precursor rRNA. The U14 RNA from Saccharomyces cerevisiae is
distinguished from its vertebrate homologues by the presence of a stem-
loop domain that is essential for function. This element, known as the
Y-domain, is located in the U14 sequence between two universal sequences
that base pair with 18S rRNA. Sequence data obtained for the U14 homologues
from four additional phylogenetically distinct yeasts showed the Y-domain
is not unique to S.cerevisiae. Comparison of the five Y-domain sequences
revealed a common stem-loop structure with a conserved loop sequence that
includes eight invariant nucleotides. Conservation of these features
suggests that the Y-domain is a recognition signal for an essential
interaction. Several plant U14 RNAs were found to contain similar
structures, though with an unrelated consensus sequence in the loop
portion. The U14 gene from the most distantly related yeast,
Schizosaccharomyces pombe, was found to be active in S.cerevisiae, showing
that Y-domain function is conserved and that U14 function can be provided
by variants in which the essential elements are embedded in dissimilar
flanking sequences. This last result suggests that U14 function may be
determined solely by the essential elements.
ARTICLES
An essential domain in Saccharomyces cerevisiae U14 snoRNA is absent in vertebrates, but conserved in other yeasts
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USA.
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