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Studies of alternative isoforms provide insight into TDP-43 autoregulation and pathogenesis.

ABSTRACT: TDP-43 is a soluble, nuclear protein that undergoes cytoplasmic redistribution and aggregation in the majority of cases of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal lobar degeneration. TDP-43 autoregulates the abundance of its own transcript TARDBP by binding to an intron in the 3' untranslated region, although the mechanisms underlying this activity have been debated. Herein, we provide the most extensive analysis of TARDBP transcript yet undertaken. We detail the existence of a plethora of complex splicing events and alternative poly(A) use and provide data that explain the discrepancies reported to date regarding the autoregulatory capacity of TDP-43. Additionally, although many splice isoforms emanating from the TARDBP locus contain the regulated intron in the 3' UTR, we find only evidence for autoregulation of the transcript encoding full-length TDP-43. Finally, we use a novel cytoplasmic isoform of TDP to induce disease-like loss of soluble, nuclear TDP-43, which results in aberrant splicing and up-regulation of endogenous TARDBP. These results reveal a previously underappreciated complexity to TDP-43 regulated splicing and suggest that loss of TDP-43 autoregulatory capacity may contribute to the pathogenesis of ALS.

SUBMITTER: D'Alton S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4509932 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Loss of TDP-43 protein homeostasis and dysfunction, in particular TDP-43 aggregation, are tied to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). TDP-43 is an RNA binding protein tightly controlling its own expression levels through a negative feedback loop, involving TDP-43 recruitment to the 3' untranslated region of its own transcript. Aberrant TDP-43 expression caused by autoregulation defects are linked to TDP-43 pathology. Therefore, interactions between TDP-43 and its own transcript are crucial to prevent TDP-43 aggregation and loss of function. However, the mechanisms that mediate this interaction remain ill-defined. We find that a central RNA sequence in the 3' UTR, which mediates TDP-43 autoregulation, increases the liquid properties of TDP-43 phase separation. Furthermore, binding to this RNA sequence induces TDP-43 condensation in human cell lysates, suggesting that this interaction promotes TDP-43 self-assembly into dynamic ribonucleoprotein granules. In agreement with these findings, our experiments show that TDP-43 oligomerization and phase separation, mediated by the amino and carboxy-terminal domains, respectively, are essential for TDP-43 autoregulation. According to our additional observations, CLIP34-associated phase separation and autoregulation may be efficiently controlled by phosphorylation of the N-terminal domain. Importantly, we find that specific ALS-associated TDP-43 mutations, mainly M337V, and a shortened TDP-43 isoform recently tied to motor neuron toxicity in ALS, disrupt the liquid properties of TDP-43-RNA condensates as well as autoregulatory function. In addition, we find that M337V decreases the cellular clearance of TDP-43 and other RNA binding proteins associated with ALS/FTD. These observations suggest that loss of liquid properties in M337V condensates strongly affects protein homeostasis. Together, this work provides evidence for the central role of TDP-43 oligomerization and liquid-liquid phase separation linked to RNA binding in autoregulation. These mechanisms may be impaired by TDP-43 disease variants and controlled by specific cellular signaling.

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Studies of alternative isoforms provide insight into TDP-43 autoregulation and pathogenesis.

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