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Chen MX, Zhang KL, Gao B, Yang JF, Tian Y, Das D, Fan T, Dai L, Hao GF, Yang GF, Zhang J, Zhu FY, Fang YM. Phylogenetic comparison of 5' splice site determination in central spliceosomal proteins of the U1-70K gene family, in response to developmental cues and stress conditions. THE PLANT JOURNAL : FOR CELL AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY 2020; 103:357-378. [PMID: 32133712 DOI: 10.1111/tpj.14735] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2018] [Revised: 01/22/2020] [Accepted: 02/04/2020] [Indexed: 05/07/2023]
Abstract
Intron-containing genes have the ability to generate multiple transcript isoforms by splicing, thereby greatly expanding the eukaryotic transcriptome and proteome. In eukaryotic cells, precursor mRNA (pre-mRNA) splicing is performed by a mega-macromolecular complex defined as a spliceosome. Among its splicing components, U1 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein (U1 snRNP) is the smallest subcomplex involved in early spliceosome assembly and 5'-splice site recognition. Its central component, named U1-70K, has been extensively characterized in animals and yeast. Very few investigations on U1-70K genes have been conducted in plants, however. To this end, we performed a comprehensive study to systematically identify 115 U1-70K genes from 67 plant species, ranging from algae to angiosperms. Phylogenetic analysis suggested that the expansion of the plant U1-70K gene family was likely to have been driven by whole-genome duplications. Subsequent comparisons of gene structures, protein domains, promoter regions and conserved splicing patterns indicated that plant U1-70Ks are likely to preserve their conserved molecular function across plant lineages and play an important functional role in response to environmental stresses. Furthermore, genetic analysis using T-DNA insertion mutants suggested that Arabidopsis U1-70K may be involved in response to osmotic stress. Our results provide a general overview of this gene family in Viridiplantae and will act as a reference source for future mechanistic studies on this U1 snRNP-specific splicing factor.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mo-Xian Chen
- Co-Innovation Center for Sustainable Forestry in Southern China, College of Biology and the Environment, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, 210037, China
- Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, 518063, China
- Shenzhen Research Institute, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, China
| | - Kai-Lu Zhang
- Co-Innovation Center for Sustainable Forestry in Southern China, College of Biology and the Environment, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, 210037, China
- Shenzhen Research Institute, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, China
| | - Bei Gao
- School of Life Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong
| | - Jing-Fang Yang
- Key Laboratory of Pesticide & Chemical Biology, Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, 430079, China
| | - Yuan Tian
- Shenzhen Research Institute, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, China
| | - Debatosh Das
- Shenzhen Research Institute, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, China
| | - Tao Fan
- Shenzhen Research Institute, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, China
| | - Lei Dai
- Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, 518063, China
| | - Ge-Fei Hao
- Key Laboratory of Pesticide & Chemical Biology, Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, 430079, China
| | - Guang-Fu Yang
- Key Laboratory of Pesticide & Chemical Biology, Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, 430079, China
| | - Jianhua Zhang
- Shenzhen Research Institute, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, China
- Department of Biology, Hong Kong Baptist University, Shatin, Hong Kong
- State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong
| | - Fu-Yuan Zhu
- Co-Innovation Center for Sustainable Forestry in Southern China, College of Biology and the Environment, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, 210037, China
| | - Yan-Ming Fang
- Co-Innovation Center for Sustainable Forestry in Southern China, College of Biology and the Environment, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, 210037, China
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Zuo Y, Feng F, Qi W, Song R. Dek42 encodes an RNA-binding protein that affects alternative pre-mRNA splicing and maize kernel development. JOURNAL OF INTEGRATIVE PLANT BIOLOGY 2019; 61:728-748. [PMID: 30839161 DOI: 10.1111/jipb.12798] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/12/2018] [Accepted: 02/28/2019] [Indexed: 05/22/2023]
Abstract
RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) play an important role in post-transcriptional gene regulation. However, the functions of RBPs in plants remain poorly understood. Maize kernel mutant dek42 has small defective kernels and lethal seedlings. Dek42 was cloned by Mutator tag isolation and further confirmed by an independent mutant allele and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-CRISPR-associated protein 9 materials. Dek42 encodes an RRM_RBM48 type RNA-binding protein that localizes to the nucleus. Dek42 is constitutively expressed in various maize tissues. The dek42 mutation caused a significant reduction in the accumulation of DEK42 protein in mutant kernels. RNA-seq analysis showed that the dek42 mutation significantly disturbed the expression of thousands of genes during maize kernel development. Sequence analysis also showed that the dek42 mutation significantly changed alternative splicing in expressed genes, which were especially enriched for the U12-type intron-retained type. Yeast two-hybrid screening identified SF3a1 as a DEK42-interacting protein. DEK42 also interacts with the spliceosome component U1-70K. These results suggested that DEK42 participates in the regulation of pre-messenger RNA splicing through its interaction with other spliceosome components. This study showed the function of a newly identified RBP and provided insights into alternative splicing regulation during maize kernel development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yi Zuo
- State Key Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry, National Maize Improvement Center, Beijing Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement, Joint International Research Laboratory of Crop Molecular Breeding, College of Agronomy and Biotechnology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China
| | - Fan Feng
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of Bio-Energy Crops, Plant Science Center, School of Life Sciences, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200444, China
| | - Weiwei Qi
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of Bio-Energy Crops, Plant Science Center, School of Life Sciences, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200444, China
| | - Rentao Song
- State Key Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry, National Maize Improvement Center, Beijing Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement, Joint International Research Laboratory of Crop Molecular Breeding, College of Agronomy and Biotechnology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China
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Rauch HB, Patrick TL, Klusman KM, Battistuzzi FU, Mei W, Brendel VP, Lal SK. Discovery and expression analysis of alternative splicing events conserved among plant SR proteins. Mol Biol Evol 2013; 31:605-13. [PMID: 24356560 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/mst238] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/05/2023] Open
Abstract
The high frequency of alternative splicing among the serine/arginine-rich (SR) family of proteins in plants has been linked to important roles in gene regulation during development and in response to environmental stress. In this article, we have searched and manually annotated all the SR proteins in the genomes of maize and sorghum. The experimental validation of gene structure by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis revealed, with few exceptions, that SR genes produced multiple isoforms of transcripts by alternative splicing. Despite sharing high structural similarity and conserved positions of the introns, the profile of alternative splicing diverged significantly between maize and sorghum for the vast majority of SR genes. These include many transcript isoforms discovered by RT-PCR and not represented in extant expressed sequence tag (EST) collection. However, we report the occurrence of various maize and sorghum SR mRNA isoforms that display evolutionary conservation of splicing events with their homologous SR genes in Arabidopsis and moss. Our data also indicate an important role of both 5' and 3' untranslated regions in the regulation of SR gene expression. These observations have potentially important implications for the processes of evolution and adaptation of plants to land.
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Wang BB, O'Toole M, Brendel V, Young ND. Cross-species EST alignments reveal novel and conserved alternative splicing events in legumes. BMC PLANT BIOLOGY 2008; 8:17. [PMID: 18282305 PMCID: PMC2277414 DOI: 10.1186/1471-2229-8-17] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/16/2007] [Accepted: 02/19/2008] [Indexed: 05/18/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Although originally thought to be less frequent in plants than in animals, alternative splicing (AS) is now known to be widespread in plants. Here we report the characteristics of AS in legumes, one of the largest and most important plant families, based on EST alignments to the genome sequences of Medicago truncatula (Mt) and Lotus japonicus (Lj). RESULTS Based on cognate EST alignments alone, the observed frequency of alternatively spliced genes is lower in Mt (approximately 10%, 1,107 genes) and Lj (approximately 3%, 92 genes) than in Arabidopsis and rice (both around 20%). However, AS frequencies are comparable in all four species if EST levels are normalized. Intron retention is the most common form of AS in all four plant species (~50%), with slightly lower frequency in legumes compared to Arabidopsis and rice. This differs notably from vertebrates, where exon skipping is most common. To uncover additional AS events, we aligned ESTs from other legume species against the Mt genome sequence. In this way, 248 additional Mt genes were predicted to be alternatively spliced. We also identified 22 AS events completely conserved in two or more plant species. CONCLUSION This study extends the range of plant taxa shown to have high levels of AS, confirms the importance of intron retention in plants, and demonstrates the utility of using ESTs from related species in order to identify novel and conserved AS events. The results also indicate that the frequency of AS in plants is comparable to that observed in mammals. Finally, our results highlight the importance of normalizing EST levels when estimating the frequency of alternative splicing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bing-Bing Wang
- Department of Plant Pathology, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA
- Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., a DuPont company, 7200 N.W. 62nd Avenue, Johnston, IA 50131, USA
| | - Mike O'Toole
- Department of Plant Pathology, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA
| | - Volker Brendel
- Department of Genetics, Development and Cell Biology and Department of Statistics, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA
| | - Nevin D Young
- Department of Plant Pathology, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA
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