Transcriptomic and genomic identification of spliceosomal genes from Euglena gracilis

Pingwei Gao, Yujie Zhong, and Chengfu Sun

Decades of investigations on yeast and human nuclear pre-mRNA splicing reveal the mechanistic intricacy of the spliceosome. However, splicing diversity in other organisms and clades attracts more attentions. We survey the spliceosomal composition in Euglena gracilis, an excavate protist. Unique features of this organism are revealed, including the presence of catalytic U2 and U6 snRNAs and the majority of spliceosomal proteins, the prevalence of trans-splicing and insensitivity to general splicing modulators. The splicing proteome of representative species in this clade are found to be correlated with their respective life-styles. In the cover, the transcriptomic and genomic data from Euglena gracilis cells were analyzed, and the spliceosomal proteins (eggs) and various snRNAs (U2, U6, etc.) were identified.

This cover is designed by Yinxi Zhou and Jianfeng Jin from Hainan Medical University.