A special group of RNA elements in splicing control

选择性剪接是高等动物基因表达调控中的一个常见步骤，决定了蛋白质的数量及其变异，在动物生命的几乎每一个方面，从细胞生长/死亡、分化到发育和生理学，都发挥着关键作用;但是，在此情况下，在不同的RNA位置的许多控制元件的分子基础和它们在进化过程中的物种之间的差异仍然不清楚。我们过去的工作和目前的数据确定了一组元素在一个不寻常的位置，剪接机制的功能最佳，往往没有这样的调控元件。我们假设，这一特殊定位的RNA元件组在基因组中是常见的，以控制剪接。在这个建议中，我们将使用两个这样的元素“G道”和“A-丰富的元素”来测试的假设，使用诱变结合RNA剪接测定，因为我们已经做了以前。对这一问题的回答将为这组特殊定位的RNA元件的功能提供分子基础，深入了解它们的进化演变，并提高对RNA元件/替代外显子在基因组中的预测。

Alternative splicing is an common step in the control of gene expression in higher animal species, determining the number of proteins and their variations to be produced and playing critical roles in almost every aspect of animal life from cell growth/death, differentiation to development and physiology; however, the molecular bases of the many control elements at various RNA locations and their differences among species during evolution are still not clear. Our past work and current data identified a group of elements at an unusual location that, for the splicing machinery to function optimally, often does not have such regulatory elements. We hypothesize that this specially localized group of RNA elements are common in the genome to control splicing. In this proposal, we will use two of such elements "G tract" and "A-rich element" to test the hypothesis, using mutagenesis combined with RNA splicing assays as we have done previously. Answers to this question will provide a molecular basis for the function of this group of specially localized RNA elements, insights into their evolutionary evolvement and improve the prediction of RNA elements/alternative exons in the genomes in general.