ABSTRACT: Protein arginine methylation, catalyzed by the protein arginine methyltransferase (PRMT) family, is recognized as a widespread post-translational modification (PTM) with implications in a plethora of biological processes in eukaryotes. PRMT proteins were classified into three types, type I, II and III, according to the final methyl-arginine products generated. Despite that thousands of substrates have been identified for Type I and II PRMTs, a full scope of arginine methylation catalyzed by the only type III PRMT, PRMT7, as well as its connection with that of type I and II PRMTs remain unknown, limiting our understanding of the network of arginine methylation and its functions in cells. In this study, global profiling of PRMT4 (type I), PRMT5 (type II) and PRMT7 (type III) substrates (also referred as methylome) revealed that PRMT7 methylated a GAR (glycine and arginine) motif similar as PRMT5, while PRMT4 uniquely methylated a motif in which proline was highly enriched. PRMT4, 5 and 7-methylome were all enriched with proteins functioning in mRNA splicing, and knockdown of PRMT4, 5 or 7 led to a global change of alternative splicing events, among which a cohort with implications in cancer development was co-regulated by all three PRMTs. PRMT4, 5 and 7-mediated arginine methylation on splicing factors such as hnRNPA1, though at different status, were shown to enhance RNA binding in general and participate in the regulation of PRMT4, 5 and 7 co-regulated alternative splicing events.The clinical significance of PRMT4, 5 and 7-mediated arginine methylation was underscored by the fact that these three PRMTs as well as hnRNPA1 arginine methylation were over-represented in multiple types of cancers, which were associated with aberrant gene alternative splicing. Consistently, silencing or pharmacological inhibition of PRMT4, 5 and 7 altered gene alternative splicing and suppressed cancer cell growth, and co-treatment exhibited synergistic effects. Taken together, our study provided an integrative view of substrates for the three types of PRMTs, revealing the important function of arginine methylation in RNA splicing and cancer.
