Project description:In eukaryotes, U1 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein (snRNP) forms spliceosomes in equal stoichiometry with U2, U4, U5 and U6 snRNPs; however, its abundance in human far exceeds that of the other snRNPs. Here we used antisense morpholino oligonucleotide to U1 snRNA to achieve functional U1 snRNP knockdown in HeLa cells, and identified accumulated unspliced pre-mRNAs by genomic tiling microarrays. In addition to inhibiting splicing, U1 snRNP knockdown caused premature cleavage and polyadenylation in numerous pre-mRNAs at cryptic polyadenylation signals, frequently in introns near (<5 kilobases) the start of the transcript. This did not occur when splicing was inhibited with U2 snRNA antisense morpholino oligonucleotide or the U2-snRNP-inactivating drug spliceostatin A unless U1 antisense morpholino oligonucleotide was also included. We further show that U1 snRNA–pre-mRNA base pairing was required to suppress premature cleavage and polyadenylation from nearby cryptic polyadenylation signals located in introns. These findings reveal a critical splicing-independent function for U1 snRNP in protecting the transcriptome, which we propose explains its overabundance.
Project description:Spliceosomal snRNA are key components of small nuclear ribonucleoprotein particles (snRNPs), the building blocks of the spliceosome. The biogenesis of snRNPs is a complex process involving multiple cellular and subcellular compartments, the details of which are yet to be described. In short, the snRNA is exported to the cytoplasm as 3‘-end extended precursor (pre-snRNA), where it acquires a heptameric Sm ring. The SMN complex which catalyses this step, recruits Sm proteins and assembles them around the pre-snRNA at the single stranded Sm site. After additional modification, the complex is re-imported into the nucleus where the final maturation step occurs. Our modeling suggests that during the cytoplasmic stage of maturation pre-snRNA assumes a compact secondary structure containing Near Sm site Stem (NSS) which is not compattible with the formation of the Sm ring. To validate our in silico predictions we employed selective 2'-hydroxyl acylation analyzed by primer extension sequencing (SHAPE-Seq) on U2 snRNA in vivo, ex vivo and in vitro, and U4 pre-snRNA in vitro. For the in vivo experiment HeLa cells were incubated for 10 min at 37°C with NAI or DMSO to final concentration 200 mM. RNA was isolated using Trizol (Sigma) and 200 µl chloroform and precipitated with ethanol at -20°C overnight. For the ex vivo experiment, RNA was isolated from HeLa cells after Protease K treatment at room temperature for 45 min. After incubation, RNA was isolated using equilibrated phenol/chloroform/isoamyl alcohol buffered by folding buffer (110 mM HEPES pH 8.0, 110 mM KCl, 11 mM MgCl2) and cleaned on a PD-10 column according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Isolated RNA was treated with 100mM NAI or DMSO for 10 min at 37°C. For the in vitro experiment, U2WT and U4 pre-snRNA were transcribed by T7 polymerase followed by DNase I (30 min at 37 °C) and Proteinase K (30 min at 37°C) treatments. U2 snRNA was purified on 30 kDa Amicon columns, folded for 30 min at 37°C in 57 mM MgCl2 and incubated with 100 mM NAI at 37°C for 10 min. DMSO was used as a negative control. U4 pre-snRNA was purified on Superdex 200 Increase 10/300GL, folded for 30 min at 37°C in 60 mM MgCl2 and incubated with 100 mM NAI at 37°C for 10 min. DMSO was used as a negative control. All prepared RNA samples (in vitro, ex vivo, in vivo) were used for reverse transcription with the gene-specific primer 5’-CGTTCCTGGAGGTACTGCAA for U2 snRNA and 5’- AAAAATTCAGTCTCCG for U4 pre-snRNA. We used SHAPE MaP buffer (50 mM Tris-HCl pH 8.0, 75 mM KCl, 10 mM DTT, 0.5 mM dNTP, 6 mM MnCl2) and SuperScript II (Invitrogen). Amplicons for snRNAs were generated using gene-specific forward and reverse primers. Importantly, the primers include Nextera adaptors required for downstream library construction. PCR reaction products were cleaned using Monarch PCR&DNA Clean-up Kits. Remaining Illumina adaptor sequences were added using the PCR MasterMix and index primers provided in the NexteraXT DNA Library Preparation Kit (Illumina) according to the manufacturer’s protocol. Libraries were quantified using Qubit (Invitrogen) and BioAnalyzer (Agilent). Amplicons were sequenced on a NextSeq 500/550 platform using a 150 cycle mid-output kit. All sequencing data was analyzed using the ShapeMapper 2 analysis pipeline1. The ‘—amplicon’ and ‘—primers’ flags were used, along with sequences of gene-specific handles PCR primers, to ensure primer binding sites are excluded from reactivity calculations. Default read-depth thresholds of 5000x were used. Analysis of statistically significant reactivity differences between ex vivo and in vivo-determined SHAPE reactivities was performed using the DeltaSHAPE automated analysis tool and default settings2. 1. Busan, S. & Weeks, K.M. Accurate detection of chemical modifications in RNA by mutational profiling (MaP) with ShapeMapper 2. RNA 24, 143-148 (2018). 2. Smola, M.J., Rice, G.M., Busan, S., Siegfried, N.A. & Weeks, K.M. Selective 2'-hydroxyl acylation analyzed by primer extension and mutational profiling (SHAPE-MaP) for direct, versatile and accurate RNA structure analysis. Nat Protoc 10, 1643-69 (2015).
Project description:The La-related protein LARP7 has been mainly described as a component of the 7SK small nuclear ribonucleoprotein (snRNP) complex, which negatively regulates RNA polymerase II by sequestering the positive transcription elongation factor b (P-TEFb). In our studies, we discovered a novel, 7SK snRNP-independent function of LARP7. We show that LARP7 interacts with the U6 spliceosomal RNA as well as with the small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) directing the 2'-O-methylations of U6. To investigate the relevance of this interaction, U6 or U2 snRNAs were purified from total RNA by pulldown of biotinylated antisense oligonucleotides and the occurence of 2’-O-methylations was investigated by RiboMeth-seq analysis. A comparison between U6 and U2 snRNA isolated from HEK293 wildtype or LARP7 knockout cell lines revealed that 2’-O-methylations of the U6 snRNA are specifically lost in the absence of LARP7. Alazami syndrome is a form of primary dwarfism associated with mutations in the LARP7 gene. RiboMeth-seq analyses performed with RNA isolated from blood samples of two Alazami patients or healthy parents as well as from B-lymphoblastoid cell lines (B-LCLs) derived from an Alazami patient and from a healthy parent confirmed the impact of mutant LARP7 protein variants on the 2’-O-methylation profile of the U6 snRNA.
Project description:U4/U6 di-snRNPs were disrupted and singular U4 and U6 snRNPs accumulated in egy mutant embryos, establishing the recycling function of p110 in vivo. Based on microarray analyses, a subset of spliceosome components and splicing-related factors was coordinately upregulated in the egy mutant. This revealed an extensive network of coregulated components of the spliceosome cycle, compensating – albeit inefficiently – for the recycling defect. In contrast, another set of genes, many of them eye- and pancreas-specific, was downregulated in the egy mutant embryos. Keywords: mut / wt comparison
Project description:RNAPII ChIP-seq analysis in U2 and U6 antisense morpholino oligonucleotide (AMO)-treated HeLa cells in comparison to negative control (NC) AMO To investigate if U2 or U6 AMO treatment caused transcription defect, we carried out RNAPII ChIP-seq analysis in control, U2 and U6 AMO treated HeLa cells
Project description:To understand how U4 snRNP regulates premature cleavage and polyadenylation of pre-mRNAs at the transcriptome wide, we conducted RNAPII ChIP-seq analysis on control, U1 and U4-AMO treated samples.
Project description:To understand how U4 snRNP regulates premature cleavage and polyadenylation of pre-mRNAs at the transcriptome wide, we conducted mRNA-seq analysis on control, U1 and U4-AMO treated HeLa cells
Project description:Alternative splicing (AS) can produce multiple transcripts with different exon-intron structures from a single pre-mRNA. Pre-mRNA splicing is catalyzed by a dynamic macromolecular ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complex termed the spliceosome. The spliceosome consists of several small nuclear ribonucleoproteins (snRNPs) that bind uridine-rich small nuclear RNA (snRNA). In U1, U2, U4 and U5 snRNPs, snRNA interacts with the conserved Smith antigen (Sm) proteins via a bipartite Sm sequence motif. In eukaryotes, seven Sm proteins (B, D1/2/3, E, F and G) form a heptameric ring-shaped complex surrounding the snRNA. Here, we performed a tandem affinity purification using SMEB as a bait in Arabidopsis cell suspension cultures. At least 45 known/hypothesized and potential novel spliceosome components were identified in Arabidopsis.