5-Bromouridine (abbreviated BrUrd, 5BrU, br5Urd or rarely the one letter code B) is a

uridine Uridine (symbol U or Urd) is a glycosylated pyrimidine analog containing uracil attached to a ribose ring (or more specifically, a ribofuranose) via a β-N1-glycosidic bond. The analog is one of the five standard nucleosides which make up nuclei ...

derivative In mathematics, the derivative of a function of a real variable measures the sensitivity to change of the function value (output value) with respect to a change in its argument (input value). Derivatives are a fundamental tool of calculus. F ...

with a bromo substituent at the fifth carbon. BrUrd is incorporated into RNA and can be detected immunocytochemically and analysed by cytometry. It causes DNA damage through base substitution and increases the number of mutations.

Uses

Detecting half-Life activity

5-Bromouridine has also been used to detect the half-life of RNA molecules. In a method called 5'-bromo-uridine immunoprecipitation chase-deep sequencing analysis (BRIC-seq), 5'-bromouridine is used to label RNA and enable the measurement of RNA levels over time. This method was used in Tani et al.'s study determining RNA half-lives to investigate the function of non-coding RNAs.

Splicing of pre-mRNA

5-Bromouridine was also used to study ''in vitro'' splicing of pre-mRNA in a study by Wansink. 5-Bromoruridine 5'-triphosphate (BruUTP) was used to label pre-mRNA and investigate the efficiency of splicing. They found that splicing is inhibited if uridines in RNA transcript were replaced by BrU, which suggested that Us were critical for the splicing reaction.

Detection of RNA synthesis in individual cells

Incorporation of 5-bromouridine by individual cells was detected immunocytochemically using antibodies against BrdU followed by flow cytometry.

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