The maturation of the precursors of mRNA to a functional transcript in eukaryotic cells is a complex, multistep process. It includes the formation of RNP complexes and the splicing procedure. Also, the presence of snRNA packaged as snRNP particles plays an important role in this process. In addition, snRNPs are involved in various autoimmune diseases in which autoantibodies are directed against components of these particles.
Relevant techniques to investigate RNA processing, splicing, protein-RNA complex formation and protein-RNA interactions as well as the use of autoantibodies in basic and clinical research are presented in this manual.

1 Isolation and Immunochemical Characterization of hnRNP Particles

2 The lnRNP Particle - A Naturally Assembled Complex of Pre-mRNA and Splicing Factors
3 Intrinsic Fluorescence Techniques for Studies on Protein-Protein and Protein-RNA Interactions in RNP Particles
4 Procedures for Three-Dimensional Reconstruction from Thin Sections with Electron Tomography
5 Purification and Electron Microscopy of Spliceosomal snRNPs
6 Detection of Autoantibodies to Extractable Cellular Antigens
7 Methods in Immunolocalization of Autoantigens
8 In vitro Splicing of Pre-mRNA in HeLa Extracts
Abbreviations.