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Rapidly evolving protointrons in Saccharomyces genomes revealed by a hungry spliceosome.

ABSTRACT: Introns are a prevalent feature of eukaryotic genomes, yet their origins and contributions to genome function and evolution remain mysterious. In budding yeast, repression of the highly transcribed intron-containing ribosomal protein genes (RPGs) globally increases splicing of non-RPG transcripts through reduced competition for the spliceosome. We show that under these "hungry spliceosome" conditions, splicing occurs at more than 150 previously unannotated locations we call protointrons that do not overlap known introns. Protointrons use a less constrained set of splice sites and branchpoints than standard introns, including in one case AT-AC in place of GT-AG. Protointrons are not conserved in all closely related species, suggesting that most are not under positive selection and are fated to disappear. Some are found in non-coding RNAs (e. g. CUTs and SUTs), where they may contribute to the creation of new genes. Others are found across boundaries between noncoding and coding sequences, or within coding sequences, where they offer pathways to the creation of new protein variants, or new regulatory controls for existing genes. We define protointrons as (1) nonconserved intron-like sequences that are (2) infrequently spliced, and importantly (3) are not currently understood to contribute to gene expression or regulation in the way that standard introns function. A very few protointrons in S. cerevisiae challenge this classification by their increased splicing frequency and potential function, consistent with the proposed evolutionary process of "intronization", whereby new standard introns are created. This snapshot of intron evolution highlights the important role of the spliceosome in the expansion of transcribed genomic sequence space, providing a pathway for the rare events that may lead to the birth of new eukaryotic genes and the refinement of existing gene function.

SUBMITTER: Talkish J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6726248 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Rapidly evolving protointrons in Saccharomyces genomes revealed by a hungry spliceosome.

Talkish Jason J Igel Haller H Perriman Rhonda J RJ Shiue Lily L Katzman Sol S Munding Elizabeth M EM Shelansky Robert R Donohue John Paul JP Ares Manuel M

PLoS genetics 20190822 8

Introns are a prevalent feature of eukaryotic genomes, yet their origins and contributions to genome function and evolution remain mysterious. In budding yeast, repression of the highly transcribed intron-containing ribosomal protein genes (RPGs) globally increases splicing of non-RPG transcripts through reduced competition for the spliceosome. We show that under these "hungry spliceosome" conditions, splicing occurs at more than 150 previously unannotated locations we call protointrons that do ...[more]

PMID: 31437148

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Project description:Here we focus on identifying conserved elements that are required for Chaserr function, a lncRNA that we recently characterized as being essential for mouse viability (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13075-8). Chaserr is highly conserved in different species, and is located in close proximity (<2kb) to the transcription start site of CHD2. It acts in concert with the CHD2 protein to maintain proper Chd2 expression levels. Using the LncLOOM framework we identified AUGG enriched conserved elements which are located in the last exon of mouse Chaserr. In order to identify proteins that potentially bind to these conserved regions, we used in vitro transcription to generate the following biotinylated RNAs; along with their antisense controls: 1) The WT sequence, containing the first 322 nt of the last exon of Chaserr (bases 764–1086 of the NR_037601 isoform). An antisense control fragment was also prepared, labelled as AWT 2) The mutant conserved (MC) sequence, that contained AUGG→UACC mutations in four conserved motifs that were found using LncLOOM. An antisense control fragment was also prepared, labelled as AMC 3) The muatant all (MA) sequence in which all seven of the AUGG sites in the last exon were mutated to UACC. An antisense control fragment was also prepared, labelled as AMA 4) We also included a No Probe Control, which did not contain an RNA fragment. The fragments were incubated with N2a cell lysates followed by RNA-pulldown and Mass Spec analysis. The experiment was performed in triplicate. A total of 938 proteins were found to associate with the WT sequence: 74 of these were enriched ≥3-fold compared to the antisense sequence.We identified 9 proteins that had ≥2-fold higher recovery when using the WT sequence compared to both mutants. Included in these proteins was DHX36, which showed the highest enrichment compared to the mutated sequences. We validated the association of DHX36 with Chaserr through RNA immunoprecipitation experiments.

Dataset Information

Rapidly evolving protointrons in Saccharomyces genomes revealed by a hungry spliceosome.

Publications

Rapidly evolving protointrons in Saccharomyces genomes revealed by a hungry spliceosome.

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