Spliceosome facts for kids

A spliceosome is a complex of special RNA and protein subunits. Spliceosomes are amazingly complex molecular machines. They remove introns from a transcribed pre-mRNA segment. This process is generally referred to as splicing.

Each spliceosome is composed of five small nuclear RNAs, (snRNA)s, and more than 50 proteins.

Images for kids

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  Spliceosomal splicing cycle

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  Figure 1. Above are electron microscopy fields of negatively stained yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) tri-snRNPs. Below left is a schematic illustration of the interaction of tri-snRNP proteins with the U4/U6 snRNA duplex. Below right is a cartoon model of the yeast tri-snRNP with shaded areas corresponding to U5 (gray), U4/U6 (orange) and the linker region (yellow).

See also

In Spanish: Espliceosoma para niños