Identification of a yeast snRNP protein and detection of snRNP-snRNP interactions.

The RNA8 gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae encodes an unusually large (260 kd) protein required for pre-mRNA splicing. Immunological procedures have been used to demonstrate that the RNA8 protein is in stable association with the small nuclear RNAs snR7L and snR7S, which are also known to be required for splicing and which are present in spliceosomal complexes. RNA8 is also involved in an ATP-dependent association with two other small nuclear RNAs, snR14 and snR6. It is proposed that this represents an ATP-dependent interaction between small nuclear ribonucleoprotein particles that precedes their entry into the spliceosome.