Cell
Volume 73, Issue 3, 7 May 1993, Pages 521-532
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Article
Operons in C. elegans: Polycistronic mRNA precursors are processed by trans-splicing of SL2 to downstream coding regions

https://doi.org/10.1016/0092-8674(93)90139-HGet rights and content

Abstract

The mRNAs of six C. elegans genes are known to be trans-spliced to SL2. We report here that a similarly oriented gene is located 100–300 bp upstreams of each. We present evidence that the genes in these clusters are cotranscribed and downstream mRNAs are formed by cleavage at the polyadenylation site and trans-splicing. From one three-gene cluster we isolated cDNA clones representing both polycistronic RNAs and mRNAs polyadenylated at the free 3′ end created by trans-splicing, suggesting that polycistronic RNAs can be processed by trans-splicing. Several experiments indicate that SL2 trans-splicing is a consequence of a gene's downstream location in an operon. In particular, when an SL1-accepting gene was moved to a downstream location, its mRNA was trans-spliced largely to SL2. The possible regulatory significance of contranscription of C. elegans genes is discussed.

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