ABSTRACT: High throughput sequencing identifies misregulated genes in the Drosophila Polypyrimidine Tract-binding protein (hephaestus) mutant defective in spermatogenesis
Project description:The Drosophila polypyrimidine tract-binding protein (dmPTB or hephaestus) plays an important role during spermatogenesis. The heph2 mutation in this gene results in a specific defect in spermatogenesis, causing aberrant spermatid individualization and male sterility. However, the array of molecular defects in the mutant remains uncharacterized. This study provides the first comprehensive list of genes misregulated in vivo in the heph2 mutant in Drosophila and offers insight into the role of dmPTB during spermatogenesis.
Project description:Drosophila PTB (Polypyrimidine Tract-binding protein dmPTB) regulates dorso-ventral patterning genes in embryos Comparison of wild type (yw genotype) and PTB mutant (heph03429) drosophila embryos
Project description:The essential pre-mRNA splicing factor U2AF2 (also called U2AF65) identifies polypyrimidine (Py) tract signals of nascent transcripts, despite length and sequence variations. Previous studies have shown that the U2AF2 RNA recognition motifs (RRM1 and RRM2) preferentially bind uridine-rich RNAs. Nonetheless, the specificity of the RRM1/RRM2 interface for the central Py tract nucleotide has yet to be investigated. Enhanced crosslinking and immunoprecipitation of endogenous U2AF2 in human erythroleukemia cells showed uridine-sensitive binding sites with lower sequence conservation at the central nucleotide positions of otherwise uridine-rich, U2AF2-bound splice sites. Altogether, these results highlight the importance of RNA flexibility for protein recognition and take a step towards relating splice site motifs to pre-mRNA splicing efficiencies. Keywords: splicing, RNA binding, U2AF2, U2AF65, 3'SS, 3' splice site, eCLIP, polypyrimidine tract, RNA recognition motif, RRM, U-rich, Py-tract
Project description:Ribosomopathies constitute a range of disabling conditions associated with defective protein synthesis mainly affecting hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and erythroid development. Here we demonstrate that deletion of Polypyrimidine Tract Binding Protein 1 (PTBP1) in the hematopoietic compartment led to the development of a ribosomopathy-like condition. Specifically, loss of PTBP1 was associated with a decrease in HSC self-renewal, erythroid differentiation and protein synthesis. Consistent with its function as a splicing regulator, PTBP1 deficiency led to splicing defects in hundreds of genes and we demonstrate that the up-regulation of a specific isoform of CDC42 could partly mimic the protein synthesis defect associated with loss of PTBP1. Furthermore, PTBP1 deficiency was associated with a marked defect in ribosome biogenesis and a selective reduction in the translation of mRNAs encoding ribosomal proteins. Collectively, this work identifies PTBP1 as a key integrator of ribosomal functions and highlights the broad functional repertoire of RNA binding proteins.
Project description:Ribosomopathies constitute a range of disorders associated with defective protein synthesis mainly affecting hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and erythroid development. Here we demonstrate that deletion of Polypyrimidine Tract Binding Protein 1 (PTBP1) in the hematopoietic compartment led to the development of a ribosomopathy-like condition. Specifically, loss of PTBP1 was associated with decreases in HSC self-renewal, erythroid differentiation and protein synthesis. Consistent with its function as a splicing regulator, PTBP1 deficiency led to splicing defects in hundreds of genes, and we demonstrate that the up-regulation of a specific isoform of CDC42 could partly mimic the protein synthesis defect associated with loss of PTBP1. Furthermore, PTBP1 deficiency was associated with a marked defect in ribosome biogenesis and a selective reduction in the translation of mRNAs encoding ribosomal proteins. Collectively, this work identifies PTBP1 as a key integrator of ribosomal functions and highlights the broad functional repertoire of RNA binding proteins.