[Research Article] The 3.8 Å structure of the U4/U6.U5 tri-snRNP: Insights into spliceosome assembly and catalysis
Splicing of precursor messenger RNA is accomplished by a dynamic megacomplex known as the spliceosome. Assembly of a functional spliceosome requires a preassembled U4/U6.U5 tri-snRNP complex, which comprises the U5 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein (snRNP), the U4 and U6 small nuclear RNA (snRNA) duplex, and a number of protein factors. Here we report the three-dimensional structure of a Saccharomyces cerevisiae U4/U6.U5 tri-snRNP at an overall resolution of 3.8 angstroms by single-particle electron cryomicroscopy. The local resolution for the core regions of the tri-snRNP reaches 3.0 to 3.5 angstroms, allowing construction of a refined atomic model. Our structure contains U5 snRNA, the extensively base-paired U4/U6 snRNA, and 30 proteins including Prp8 and Snu114, which amount to 8495 amino acids and 263 nucleotides with a combined molecular mass of ~1 megadalton. The catalytic nucleotide U80 from U6 snRNA exists in an inactive conformation, stabilized by its base-pairing interactions with U4 snRNA and protected...
