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Diamond–Blackfan anaemia (DBA) is a congenital anaemia and broad developmental disease that develops soon after birth. The anaemia is due to failure of erythropoiesis, with normal platelet and myeloid lineages, and it can be managed with steroids, blood transfusions, or stem cell transplantation. Normal erythropoiesis after transplantation shows that the defect is intrinsic to an erythroid precursor. DBA is inherited in about 10–20% of cases, and genetic studies have identified mutations in a ribosomal protein gene, RPS19, in 25% of cases; there is evidence for involvement of at least two other genes. In yeast, RPS19 deletion leads to a block in ribosomal RNA biogenesis. The critical question is how mutations in RPS19 lead to the failure of proliferation and differentiation of erythroid progenitors. While this question has not yet been answered, understanding the biology of DBA may provide insight not only into the defect in erythropoisis, but also into the other developmental abnormalities that are present in about 40% of patients, and into the cancer predisposition that is inherent to DBA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Splitting and apparent splicing of ribosomal RNA, both previously unknown in vertebrates, were found in rodents of the genus Ctenomys. Instead of being formed by a single molecule of 4.4 kb, 28S rRNA is split in two molecules of 2.6 and 1.8 kb. A hidden break, mapping within a 106 bp ‘intron’ located in the D6 divergent region, is expressed in mature ribosomes of liver, lung, heart and spleen, as well as in primary fibroblast cultures. Testis-specific processing eliminates the intron and concomitantly the break site, producing non-split 28S rRNA molecules exclusively in this organ. The intron is flanked by two 9 bp direct repeats, revealing the acquisition by insertion of a novel rRNA processing strategy in the evolution of higher organisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]