In: Biology
. The primary transcript (pre-mRNA) of a nuclear gene in chimpanzee has the sequence:
5’-G-exon1 –AGGUAAGCCAGGUC-exon 2-A-3’
After the intron has been removed, what is the likely sequence of the mRNA?
The resulting mature mRNA will have the following sequence:
5’-G-exon1 –AGGUC-exon 2-A-3’
Eukaryotic transcription for mRNA does not directly forms mature mRNA, rather pre-mRNA is formed first which undergo post transcriptional modifications to make mature mRNA. Post transcriptional modification includes three steps: 5' capping, 3' polyadenylation and splicing of introns. (Remember introns are not included in the mature mRNA).
In eukaryotic protein-coding genes, two types of introns are found : (1) GU-AG and (2) AU-AC.
The present sequence { 5’-G-exon1 –AGGUAAGCCAGGUC-exon 2-A-3’ } seems to have GU-AG type of introns due to the presence of -GU- towards 5' end of intron and -AG- towards 3' end of intron (as shown below in red color font)
5’-G-exon1 –AGGUAAGCCAGGUC-exon 2-A-3’
An internal adenosine nucleotide (shown in blue color above), starts a transesterification reaction and results in breakage of phosphodiester bond at 5' splice site (i.e., 5'-GU-3') forming a lariat structure. A second transesterification reaction cleaves the 3'splice site (i.e., 5' -AG-3') and thw two exons join with each other.
The resulting mature mRNA will have the following sequence:
5’-G-exon1 –AGGUC-exon 2-A-3’