Required for ribosome biogenesis and telomere maintenance. Part of the H/ACA small nucleolar ribonucleoprotein (H/ACA snoRNP) complex, which catalyzes pseudouridylation of rRNA. This involves the isomerization of uridine such that the ribose is subsequently attached to C5, instead of the normal N1. Each rRNA can contain up to 100 pseudouridine ("psi") residues, which may serve to stabilize the conformation of rRNAs. May also be required for correct processing or intranuclear trafficking of TERC, the RNA component of the telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) holoenzyme.
Mammalian H/ACA small nucleolar RNAs and telomerase RNA share common sequence and secondary structure motifs that form ribonucleoprotein particles (RNPs) with the same four core proteins, NAP57 (also dyskerin or in yeast Cbf5p), GAR1, NHP2, and NOP10. The assembly and molecular interactions of the components of H/ACA RNPs are unknown. Using in vitro transcription/translation in combination with immunoprecipitation of core proteins, UV-crosslinking, and electrophoretic mobility shift assays, we demonstrate the following. NOP10 associates with NAP57 as a prerequisite for NHP2 binding. Although NHP2 on its own binds RNA nonspecifically, this NAP57-NOP10-NHP2 core trimer specifically recognizes H/ACA RNAs. GAR1 associates independently with NAP57 near the pseudouridylase core of mature H/ACA RNPs. In contrast to other RNPs whose assembly is initiated by protein-RNA interactions, the four H/ACA core proteins form a protein-only particle that associates with H/ACA RNAs. Nonetheless, functional H/ACA snoRNPs assembled in cytosolic extracts are stable and do not exchange their RNA components, suggesting that new particle formation requires de novo synthesis.
Proteins conjugated with ribonucleic acid (RNA). Ribonucleoprotein are involved in a wide range of cellular processes. Besides ribosomes, in eukaryotic cells both initial RNA transcripts in the nucleus (hnRNA) and cytoplasmic mRNAs exist as complexes with specific sets of proteins. Processing (splicing) of the former is carried out by small nuclear RNPs (snRNPs). Other examples are the signal recognition particle responsible for targetting proteins to endoplasmic reticulum and a complex involved in termination of transcription.
A reference proteome is a set of protein sequences derived from a complete proteome which constitutes a defined standard for a particular user community. Reference proteomes are manually defined according to a number of criteria. They cover the proteomes of well- studied model organisms and other proteomes of interest for biomedical and biotechnological research. Reference proteomes have been selected to provide broad coverage of the tree of life, and constitute a representative cross-section of the taxonomic diversity to be found within UniProtKB.