Identification of SL addition trans-splicing acceptor sites in the internal transcribed spacer I region of pre-rRNA in Leishmania (Leishmania) amazonensis

• Main Authors: Mario Gustavo Mayer, Lucile Maria Floeter-Winter
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Ministério da Saúde 2012-12-01
• Series: Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz.
• Subjects: RNA polymerase I; spliced leader RNA; spliceosome
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0074-02762012000800019&lng=en&tlng=en

Trypanosomatidae is a family of early branching eukaryotes harbouring a distinctive repertoire of gene expression strategies. Functional mature messenger RNA is generated via the trans-splicing and polyadenylation processing of constitutively transcribed polycistronic units. Recently, trans-splicing of pre-small subunit ribosomal RNA in the 5' external transcribed spacer region and of precursor tRNAsec have been described. Here, we used a previously validated semi-nested reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction strategy to investigate internal transcribed spacer (ITS) I acceptor sites in total RNA from Leishmania (Leishmania) amazonensis. Two distinct spliced leader-containing RNAs were detected indicating that trans-splicing reactions occur at two AG acceptor sites mapped in this ITS region. These data provide further evidence of the wide spectrum of RNA molecules that act as trans-splicing acceptors in trypanosomatids.