Abstract

The effects of K^+ ion on the activity of RNA splicing of T4 phage thymidylate synthase gene have been investigated. The splicing activity was stimulated within the range of 5 to 20 mM concentration of KCI. When the concentration of KCI in the splicing reaction was brought to 100 or 200 mM a small amount of the exonl-intron product (1, 4 kb) was formed with large proportion of primary RNA transcript not undergoing splicing. This observation strongly suggests that there may exist come kinds of interferences with transesterification at the first step of splicing. Overall it can be concluded that K^+ ion exhibits very unique roles in RNA splicing of td gene depending on its concentration.

• Keywords: T4 phage td intron; K^+ ion; RNA splicing