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Is the spliceosome a ribonucleoprotein enzyme?

New work suggests that Prp8, a highly conserved protein in the heart of the spliceosome, both orients the substrate and participates in catalysis.

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Figure 1: Diagram of Prp8 showing known structural features and relevant mutations.
Figure 2: Structure of the RNase H domain of Prp8.

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Acknowledgements

Thanks to C. Maeder and C. Guthrie for discussions and help in preparing this News and Views.

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Abelson, J. Is the spliceosome a ribonucleoprotein enzyme?. Nat Struct Mol Biol 15, 1235–1237 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb1208-1235

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