Formation of the 3' end on U snRNAs requires at least three sequence elements

The structural requirements for 3' end formation on the Xenopus laevis U1B snRNA gene have been studied. Three sequence elements are shown to be required. The first is a conserved sequence element found immediately 3' of all vertebrate U snRNA genes studied so far. The second is a gene internal sequence potentially capable of forming a stem-loop structure close to the 3' end of the RNA. The third element lies upstream of these, and may be part of the gene promoter. Experiments designed to investigate the mechanism of 3' end formation on primary U1B snRNA transcripts failed to find evidence for a processing event.