The 5′ splice site consensus RNA oligonucleotide induces assembly of U2/U4/U5/U6 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein complexes

A short RNA oligonucleotide comprising the 5′ splice site consensus sequence (5′SS RNA oligo) efficiently inhibits splicing of mRNA precursors in HeLa cell nuclear extracts. Addition of 5′SS RNA oligo inhibits early, but not late, steps in the splicing reaction, affecting the process of spliceosome assembly. In the presence of 5′SS RNA oligo a majority of U4/U5/U6 triple small nuclear ribonucleoprotein (snRNP) complex present in HeLa nuclear extracts associates with U2 snRNP to form a multi-snRNP complex, which could account for the observed inhibition of splicing by the oligo. This same set of snRNPs has been shown to assemble on pre-mRNAs during in vitro splicing to form splicing complex B. Removal of the 5′ end of U1 snRNA, which is complementary to the 5′ splice site, does not prevent association of snRNPs into U2/U4/U5/U6 complex in the presence of 5′SS RNA oligo. This suggests that interactions other than U1 snRNA·5′SS RNA oligo base pairing are used in recognition of the oligo sequence. 5′SS RNA oligo-induced assembly of the multi-snRNP complex may thus serve as a model to study the mechanism of 5′ splice site recognition during splicing.