GO cellular component ontology term - GO:0015030 - Cajal body
Term summary
- ID
- GO:0015030
- Name
- Cajal body
- Ontology or CV name
- GO cellular component
- Definition
- A class of nuclear body, first seen after silver staining by Ramon y Cajal in 1903, enriched in small nuclear ribonucleoproteins, and certain general RNA polymerase II transcription factors; ultrastructurally, they appear as a tangle of coiled, electron-dense threads roughly 0.5 micrometers in diameter; involved in aspects of snRNP biogenesis; the protein coilin serves as a marker for Cajal bodies. Some argue that Cajal bodies are the sites for preassembly of transcriptosomes, unitary particles involved in transcription and processing of RNA.