| U2 spliceosomal RNA | |
|---|---|
| Predicted secondary structure and sequence conservation of U2 | |
| Identifiers | |
| Symbol | U2 |
| Rfam | RF00004 |
| Other data | |
| RNA type | Gene; snRNA; splicing |
| Domain(s) | Eukaryota |
| GO | 0000370 0045131 0005686 |
| SO | 0000392 |
U2 spliceosomal RNA is a small nuclear RNA (snRNA) component of the spliceosome (involved in pre-mRNA splicing). Complementary binding between U2 snRNA (in an area lying towards the 5' end but 3' to hairpin I) and the branchpoint sequence (BPS) of the intron results in the bulging out of an unpaired adenosine, on the BPS, which initiates a nucleophilic attack at the intronic 5' splice site, thus starting the first of two transesterification reactions that mediate splicing.