In vitro processing at the 3'-terminal region of pre-18S rRNA by a nucleolar endoribonuclease.

In an investigation of the possible involvement of a highly purified nucleolar endoribonuclease in processing of pre-rRNA at the 3' end of the 18S rRNA sequence, an in vitro synthesized pre-18S rRNA transcript containing the 3' end region of 18S rRNA and the 5' region of the first internal transcribed spacer (ITS1) was used as a substrate for the enzyme. Cleavages generated by the nucleolar RNase were localized by S1 nuclease protection analysis and by the direct release of labeled rRNA products. Precise determination of the specificity of cleavage was achieved by RNA sequence analysis with end-labeled rRNA transcripts. These data demonstrated that the purified nucleolar RNase cleaved the pre-18S rRNA transcript at three specific sites relative to the 3' region of 18S rRNA. The first two sites included the mature 3'-end 18S rRNA sequence and a site approximately 55 nucleotides downstream of the 3'-end 18S rRNA sequence, both of which corresponded directly to recent results (Raziuddin, R. D. Little, T. Labella, and D. Schlessinger, Mol. Cell. Biol. 9:1667-1671, 1989) obtained with transfected mouse rDNA in hamster cells. The other cleavage occurred approximately 35 nucleotides upstream from the mature 3' end in the 18S rRNA sequence. The results from this study mimic the results obtained from in vivo studies for processing in the 3' region of pre-18S rRNA, supporting the proposed involvement of this nucleolar endoribonuclease in rRNA maturation.