Identification of a Functional Mammalian Spliceosome Containing Unspliced Pre-mRNA

Functional 60S spliceosomes were assembled under conditions that block the first step of the mRNA splicing reaction. This block was imposed by carrying out the splicing reaction in nuclear extracts preincubated in 2.5 mM EDTA. Preparative amounts of the spliceosomes were isolated by gel filtration chromatography and shown to be functional by in vitro complementation assays. The unspliced pre-mRNA in the complex was converted to spliced products when incubated in cytoplasmic S100 extracts or in heat-treated or micrococcal nuclease-treated nuclear extracts. The latter result, in conjunction with the size of the complex, suggests that the spliceosome contains all of the small nuclear ribonucleoproteins (snRNPs) required for both steps of the splicing reaction. Biochemical characterization of the 5′ cleavage reaction revealed that ATP and MgCl2 are required for this step in the splicing pathway. The presence of U1 snRNP in the blocked complex was demonstrated by quantitative immunoprecipitation of this complex by an anti-U1 snRNP monoclonal antibody.