Exonucleases are enzymes that work by cleaving nucleotides one at a time from the end (exo) of a polynucleotide chain. A hydrolyzing reaction that breaks phosphodiester bonds at either the 3′ or the 5′ end occurs. Its close relative is the endonuclease, which cleaves phosphodiester bonds in the middle (endo) of a polynucleotide chain. Eukaryotes and prokaryotes have three types of exonucleases involved in the normal turnover of mRNA: 5′ to 3′ exonuclease (Xrn1), which is a dependent decapping protein; 3′ to 5′ exonuclease, an independent protein; and poly(A)-specific 3′ to 5′ exonuclease.[1][2]
In both archaea and eukaryotes, one of the main routes of RNA degradation is performed by the multi-protein exosome complex, which consists largely of 3′ to 5′ exoribonucleases.
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- ^ Pamela A. Frischmeyer; et al. (2002). "An mRNA Surveillance Mechanism That Eliminates Transcripts Lacking Termination Codons". Science. 295 (5563): 2258–61. Bibcode:2002Sci...295.2258F. doi:10.1126/science.1067338. PMID 11910109. S2CID 40843312.