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The spliceosome shows its metal

A conserved region of U6 small nuclear RNA has been implicated in binding an essential metal ion. Is this a glimpse of the spliceosome's catalytic core?

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Figure 1: The chemical pathway of pre-mRNA splicing.
Figure 2: Possible RNA components of the spliceosomal active site for the first step of pre-mRNA splicing.

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Sontheimer, E. The spliceosome shows its metal. Nat Struct Mol Biol 8, 11–13 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/82979

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