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PMID: 3658696 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Transcription of the intergenic regions of the tubulin gene cluster of Trypanosoma brucei: evidence for a polycistronic transcription unit in a eukaryote.

Nucleic acids research ·Vol. 15 ·No. 18 ·1987-09-25 ·Pages 7357-68

Imboden MA, Laird PW, Affolter M, Seebeck T

Abstract

The tubulin genes of T. brucei are clustered in a tightly packed array of alternating alpha- and beta-genes. The steady state mRNA contains one abundant mRNA species each for alpha- and beta-tubulin, both carrying the identical 35 nt mini-exon sequence at their 5'-ends. We have used in vitro run-on transcription assays to investigate the mechanism of tubulin gene transcription in T. brucei. Our results show that the regions between the individual tubulin genes are transcribed at the same rate as are the genes themselves. On the other hand, transcripts containing the intergenic regions could not be detected by Northern analysis or in vivo labelling experiments. We conclude that putative transcripts from the intergenic regions have a half-life of less than one minute. These results suggest that the tubulin gene cluster is transcribed as a single contiguous transcription unit yielding a primary transcript which is rapidly processed into individual mRNAs by the polyadenylation and mini-exon trans splicing machineries.

MeSH Terms
Animals Multigene Family RNA Processing, Post-Transcriptional RNA, Messenger/biosynthesis,genetics Transcription, Genetic Trypanosoma brucei brucei/genetics Tubulin/genetics
Chemicals
RNA, Messenger Tubulin
Authors & Affiliations
4 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Imboden M A
Institute of General Microbiology, Bern, Switzerland.
Laird P W
Affolter M
Seebeck T
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44 references, click to expand
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Article Info
Journal
Nucleic acids research
Abbr.
Nucleic Acids Res
ISSN
0305-1048
DOI
10.1093/nar/15.18.7357
Published
1987-09-25
Pages
7357-68
Language
English
Region
England
NLM ID
0411011
PMCID
PMC306253
Subset
IM
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1093/nar/15.18.7357 PMC Full Text View journal details
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