Transcript-specific determinants of pre-mRNA splicing revealed through in vivo kinetic analyses of the 1st and 2nd chemical steps

We generate high-precision measurements of the in vivo rates of both chemical steps of pre-mRNA splicing across the genome-wide complement of substrates in yeast by coupling metabolic labeling, multiplexed primer-extension sequencing, and kinetic modeling. We demonstrate that the rates of intron removal vary widely, splice-site sequences are primary determinants of 1st step but have little apparent impact on 2nd step rates, and the 2nd step is generally faster than the 1st step. Ribosomal protein genes (RPGs) are spliced faster than non-RPGs at each step, and RPGs share evolutionarily conserved properties that may contribute to their faster splicing. A genetic variant defective in the 1st step of the pathway reveals a genome-wide defect in the 1st step but an unexpected, transcript-specific change in the 2nd step. Our work demonstrates that extended co-transcriptional association is an important determinant of splicing rate, a conclusion at odds with recent claims of ultra-fast splicing.