"... The researchers also showed that the existence of the two mechanisms can allow viruses to perform a selective shutdown, blocking the part of the cell’s RNA machinery that’s responsible for antiviral defenses without harming the rest of the RNA, so as, potentially, to avoid killing the cell that serves as their home. ... To explore this phenomenon, Ulitsky and colleagues selectively silenced several genes responsible for the export of RNA from the nuclei of human cells. They identified two groups of genes responsible for protein machineries that play different roles in this export, distinguishing between RNAs made up of few segments called exons, and RNAs that are spliced together from numerous exons. The number of exons in an RNA molecule can range from one to over one hundred. The scientists found that one of the two machineries, NXF1, exported mostly RNAs containing no more than three exons; the other, TREX, focused on RNAs containing four exons or more."
Two Roads Diverged in a Cell The way in which RNA is exported from the cell nucleus – a process that is crucial for all cellular life – was mostly thought to be uniform and fast. But in a new study, researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science have shown that the cell uses at least two different mechanisms of RNA export; and the study explained how the export of particular RNAs may be delayed while others can still rapidly exit the nucleus.
Here is the link to the underlying research paper (no public access):
Gene Architecture and Sequence Composition Underpin Selective Dependency of Nuclear Export of Long RNAs on NXF1 and the TREX Complex
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