In eukaryotes, the process of processing of primary transcript involve...
The primary mRNA transcript is longer and localised into the nucleus, where it is also called heterogeneous nuclear RNA (hnRNA) or pre-mRNA. At the 5' end of hnRNA, a cap (consisting of 7-emthyl guanosine triphosphate or 7 mG) and a tail of poly A (Adenylate residues) at the 3' end are added. These processes are respectively called as capping and tailing. The cap is a chemically modified molecule of guanosine triphosphate (GTP). The primary mRNA are made up of two types of segments, non-coding introns and the coding exons. The introns are removed by a process called RNA splicing and the exons are joined in a defined order.
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In eukaryotes, the process of processing of primary transcript involve...
The correct answer is option 'D': all of these.
In eukaryotes, the primary transcript is the initial RNA molecule synthesized from a DNA template during transcription. Before it can be used to produce proteins, the primary transcript undergoes several processing steps to become a mature mRNA molecule. These processing steps include the removal of introns, capping at the 5' end, and polyadenylation (tailing) at the 3' end.
Below is a detailed explanation of each of these processing steps:
1. Removal of introns:
- Eukaryotic genes contain both coding regions called exons and non-coding regions called introns.
- The primary transcript is transcribed as a precursor mRNA (pre-mRNA) molecule that contains both exons and introns.
- The process of removing introns from the pre-mRNA molecule is called splicing.
- Splicing is carried out by a large complex of proteins and small nuclear ribonucleoproteins (snRNPs) called the spliceosome.
- The spliceosome recognizes specific sequences at the boundaries of introns and removes them, joining the adjacent exons to produce a mature mRNA molecule.
2. Capping at the 5' end:
- The 5' cap is a modified guanine nucleotide added to the 5' end of the pre-mRNA molecule.
- The addition of the 5' cap is important for various processes, including mRNA stability, mRNA export from the nucleus, and translation initiation.
- The 5' cap is added soon after the initiation of transcription and involves the enzymatic addition of a methylated guanine nucleotide to the 5' end of the pre-mRNA molecule.
3. Polyadenylation (tailing) at the 3' end:
- Polyadenylation is the process of adding a poly-A tail to the 3' end of the pre-mRNA molecule.
- The poly-A tail consists of a string of adenine nucleotides.
- The addition of the poly-A tail is important for mRNA stability, protection against degradation, and translation termination.
- Polyadenylation occurs after the cleavage of the pre-mRNA molecule at a specific sequence, followed by the addition of multiple adenine nucleotides by the enzyme poly(A) polymerase.
In summary, the processing of the primary transcript in eukaryotes involves the removal of introns, capping at the 5' end, and polyadenylation at the 3' end. These processing steps are essential for the generation of mature mRNA molecules that can be efficiently translated into proteins.
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