Alternative splicing of SV40 early pre-mRNA in vitro.

Simian virus 40 (SV40) early pre-mRNA is spliced using either of two alternative 5' splice sites and a common 3' splice site to produce two mRNAs that encode the T and t antigens. We have studied alternative splicing of SV40 early pre-mRNA in vitro using a HeLa cell nuclear extract. Synthetic SV40 early transcripts are processed to T and t antigen mRNAs in vitro. As in SV40-infected cells in vivo, cleavage at the T antigen 5' splice site is more efficient than cleavage at the t antigen 5' splice site in vitro, although both of these 5' splice sites are utilized relatively inefficiently in vitro. The ratio of cleavage at the T and t antigen 5' splice sites is not changed significantly by a number of alterations in the conditions under which the in vitro splicing reactions are carried out.