Eukaryotic Gene Expression Problem Set

Problem 3: Why do pre-mRNAs get smaller during RNA processing?

The primary RNA transcript of the chicken ovalbumin gene is 7700 nucleotides long, but the mature mRNA that is translated on the ribosome is 1872 nucleotides long. This size difference occurs primarily as a result of:

A. capping

B. cleavage of polycistronic mRNA

C. removal of poly A tails

D. reverse transcription

E. splicing
Splicing of the pre-mRNA removes 7 introns which total 5828 nucleotides of the pre-mRNA sequence.

The Biology Project
University of Arizona
Monday, October 27, 1997
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