Final answer:
Eukaryotic mRNA shares five key properties: 5' methylguanosine cap, 3'-poly-A tail, splicing, complete processing, and additional modifications like methylation, cleavage, and editing.
Step-by-step explanation:
Eukaryotic mRNA shares the following five properties:
- 5' methylguanosine cap: Eukaryotic pre-mRNAs are modified with a 5' methylguanosine cap, which protects the mature mRNA from degradation and helps export it from the nucleus.
- 3'-poly-A tail: Eukaryotic pre-mRNAs also have a poly-A tail added to the 3' end, which serves similar protective and export functions.
- Splicing: Pre-mRNAs undergo splicing, where introns (non-coding regions) are removed and exons (coding regions) are reconnected. This process ensures that the final mRNA consists only of the coding sequence.
- Complete processing: Only finished mRNAs that have undergone 5' capping, 3' polyadenylation, and intron splicing are exported from the nucleus to the cytoplasm for translation.
- Methylation, cleavage, and editing: Pre-rRNAs and pre-tRNAs may undergo additional modifications such as intramolecular cleavage, splicing, methylation, and RNA editing to form functional ribosomal and transfer RNAs.