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CDK12 Regulates DNA Repair Genes by Suppressing Intronic Polyadenylation

ABSTRACT: Mutations that attenuate DNA repair by homologous recombination (HR) promote tumorigenesis and sensitize cells to chemotherapeutic agents that cause replication fork collapse, a phenotype known as “BRCAness.” BRCAness tumors arise from loss-of-function mutations in 22 genes. Of these genes, all but one (Cdk12) directly function in the HR repair pathway. Cdk12 phosphorylates Serine 2 of the RNA Polymerase II (RNAPII) C-terminal domain (CTD) heptapeptide repeat, a modification that regulates transcription elongation, splicing, and cleavage/polyadenylation. Genome-wide expression studies suggest that Cdk12 depletion abrogates the expression of several HR genes relatively specifically, blunting HR repair. This observation suggests that Cdk12 mutational status may predict tumor sensitivity to targeted treatments against BRCAness, such as Parp 1 inhibitors, and that small-molecule inhibitors of Cdk12 may induce sensitization of otherwise HR-competent tumors to these treatments. Despite this growing clinical interest, the mechanism behind the apparent specificity of Cdk12 in regulating HR genes remains unknown. Here we find that Cdk12 globally suppresses intronic polyadenylation events, enabling the production of full-length gene products. Many HR genes harbor significantly more intronic polyadenylation sites compared to all expressed genes, and the cumulative effect of these sites accounts for the increased sensitivity of HR gene expression to Cdk12 loss. Finally, we find evidence that Cdk12 loss-of-function mutations cause increased intronic polyadenylation within HR genes in human tumors, suggesting that this mechanism is conserved. This work clarifies the biological function of CDK12 and underscores its potential both as a chemotherapeutic target and as a tumor biomarker.

ORGANISM(S): Mus musculus

PROVIDER: GSE116017 | GEO | 2018/11/28

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:Cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) are key regulators of the cell cycle or transcription, and are emerging as promising therapeutic targets in cancer cells. The transcriptional kinase, CDK12, is especially intriguing, as it modulates transcription elongation by phosphorylating the carboxy-terminal domain (CTD) of RNA polymerase (Pol II) with subsequent effects on expression of DNA damage response (DDR) genes. Yet the exact mechanism by which CDK12 regulates this vital process remains unclear. Using the selective inhibitor of CDK12/13, THZ5317 and transient transcriptome sequencing (TT-seq), we sought to capture the dynamic transcriptional changes linked to CDK12 by analyzing the immediate, early effects on nascent RNA production after CDK12 depletion in neuroblastoma (NB) cells. CDK12-induced inhibition resulted in gene length-dependent defects in transcription elongation, leading to a disproportionate loss of 3' reads in long genes. Short transcripts, by contrast, including those of replication-dependent histone genes, underwent 3' UTR extension. The effect on long genes was accompanied by premature cleavage and polyadenylation (PCPA), followed by early termination and loss of gene expression. DDR gene transcripts were the most prominent among those terminated by PCPA. Phosphoproteomic analysis indicated that pre-mRNA processing factors, including those involved in CPA , are direct phospho-targets of CDK12 and that CDK depletion phenocopied their effects on transcription. Importantly, sensitivity to CDK12 inhibition was predicted by a lower proportion of U1 snRNP binding sites compared to polyadenylation sites (PAS) and hence a higher propensity to intronic poly(A) site selection - a characteristic observed in most DDR genes. These results support a model in which CDK12 regulates expression of DDR genes not only by regulating transcription elongation through its effects on Pol II CTD phosphorylation, but also through direct phosphorylation of pre-mRNA processing factors. These mechanistic insights may enable the development of new anti-cancer strategies targeting multiple vulnerable steps in CDK12-dependent regulation of DNA damage repair.

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CDK12 Regulates DNA Repair Genes by Suppressing Intronic Polyadenylation

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