It was very hard to select my first “Bio Celebrity”. At the end my choice is – The Spliceosome!
The spliceosome is the component that makes possible the “maturation” of the mRNAs (removing the introns from the transcribed pre-mRNAs) and which was more important for my choice, the spliceosome determines the genetic diversity in eukaryotes in the context of the alternative splicing.
Each spliceosome is composed of five small nuclear RNA proteins, called snRNPs and a range of non-snRNP associated protein factors. The snRNPs that make up the nuclear spliceosome are named U1, U2, U4, U5 and U6. All of the are highly interconnected (via RNA-RNA interactions ) and also interact with proteins, forming a huge complex. The RNA component of the snRNP is rich in uridine.
The mRNA splicing is a quite complicated process and determines the assembled of the spliceosome. The splicing is quite well described in the post’s video.