A systematic analysis of intronic sequences downstream of 5' splice sites reveals a widespread role for U-rich motifs and TIA1/TIAL1 proteins in alternative splicing regulation

A noncanonical splicing variant c.875-5 T > G in von Willebrand factor causes in-frame exon skipping and type 2A von Willebrand disease

INTRODUCTION

A novel variant involving noncanonical splicing acceptor site (c.875-5 T > G) in propeptide coding region of von Willebrand factor (VWF) was identified in a patient with type 2A von Willebrand disease (VWD), who co-inherited with a null variant (p.Tyr271*) and presented characteristic discrepancy of plasma level of VWF antigen and activity, and a selective reduction of both intermediate-molecular-weight (IMWMs) and high-molecular-weight VWF multimers (HMWMs).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

VWF mRNA transcripts obtained from peripheral leukocytes and platelets of the patients were investigated to analyze the consequence of c.875-5 T > G on splicing. The impact of the variant on expression and multimer assembly was further analyzed by in vitro expression studies in AtT-20 cells. The intracellular processing of VWF mutant and the Weibel-Palade bodies (WPBs) formation was evaluated by immunofluorescence staining and electron microscopy.

RESULTS

The mRNA transcript analysis revealed that c.875-5 T > G variant led to exon 8 skipping and an in-frame deletion of 41 amino acids in the D1 domain of VWF (p.Ser292_Glu333delinsLys), yielding a truncated propeptide. Consistent with the patient's laboratory manifestations, the AtT-20 cells transfected with mutant secreted less VWF, with the VWF antigen level in conditioned medium 47 % of wild-type. A slight retention in the endoplasmic reticulum was observed for the mutant. Almost complete loss of IMWMs and HMWMs in the medium and impaired WPBs formation in the cell, indicating truncated VWF propeptide lost its chaperon-like function for VWF multimerization and tubular storage.

CONCLUSIONS

The VWF splicing site variant (c.875-5 T > G) causes propeptide truncation, severely compromising VWF multimer assembly and tubular storage.

Bibliometric Overview on T-Cell Intracellular Antigens and Their Pathological Implications

T-cell intracellular antigen 1 (TIA1) and TIA1-like/related protein (TIAL1/TIAR) are two members of the classical family of RNA binding proteins. Through their selective interactions with distinct RNAs and proteins, these multifunctional regulators are involved in chromatin remodeling, RNA splicing and processing and translation regulation, linking them to a wide range of diseases including neuronal disorders, cancer and other pathologies. From their discovery to the present day, many studies have focused on the behavior of these proteins in order to understand their impact on molecular and cellular processes and to understand their relationship to human pathologies. The volume of research on these proteins in various fields, including molecular biology, biochemistry, cell biology, immunology and cancer, has steadily increased, indicating a growing interest in these gene expression regulators among researchers. This information can be used to know the most productive institutions working in the field, understand the focus of research, identify key areas of involvement, delve deeper into their relationship and impact on different diseases, and to establish the level of study associated with them.

PTBP2 binds to a testis-specific long noncoding RNA, Tesra, and activates transcription of the Prss42/Tessp-2 gene

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have recently been proved to be functional in the testis. Tesra, a testis-specific lncRNA, was suggested to activate the transcription of Prss42/Tessp-2, a gene that is involved in meiotic progression, in mouse spermatocytes. To reveal the molecular mechanism underlying the activation, we searched for Tesra-binding proteins by a Ribotrap assay followed by LC-MS/MS analysis and identified polypyrimidine tract binding protein 2 (PTBP2) as a candidate. Analysis of public RNA-seq data and our qRT-PCR results indicated that Ptbp2 mRNA showed an expression pattern similar to the expression patterns of Tesra and Prss42/Tessp-2 during testis development. Moreover, PTBP2 was found to be associated with Tesra in testicular germ cells by RNA immunoprecipitation. To evaluate the effect of PTBP2 on the Prss42/Tessp-2 promoter, we established an in vitro reporter gene assay system in which Tesra expression could be induced by the Tet-on system and thereby Prss42/Tessp-2 promoter activity could be increased. In this system, the Prss42/Tessp-2 promoter activity was significantly decreased by the knockdown of PTBP2. These results suggest that PTBP2 contributes to Prss42/Tessp-2 transcriptional activation by Tesra in spermatocytes. The finding provides a precious example of a molecular mechanism of testis lncRNA functioning in spermatogenesis.

Stress-induced nuclear speckle reorganization is linked to activation of immediate early gene splicing

Current models posit that nuclear speckles (NSs) serve as reservoirs of splicing factors and facilitate posttranscriptional mRNA processing. Here, we discovered that ribotoxic stress induces a profound reorganization of NSs with enhanced recruitment of factors required for splice-site recognition, including the RNA-binding protein TIAR, U1 snRNP proteins and U2-associated factor 65, as well as serine 2 phosphorylated RNA polymerase II. NS reorganization relies on the stress-activated p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway and coincides with splicing activation of both pre-existing and newly synthesized pre-mRNAs. In particular, ribotoxic stress causes targeted excision of retained introns from pre-mRNAs of immediate early genes (IEGs), whose transcription is induced during the stress response. Importantly, enhanced splicing of the IEGs ZFP36 and FOS is accompanied by relocalization of the corresponding nuclear mRNA foci to NSs. Our study reveals NSs as a dynamic compartment that is remodeled under stress conditions, whereby NSs appear to become sites of IEG transcription and efficient cotranscriptional splicing.

The stress granule component TIAR during the non-embryonic development of the colonial ascidian Botryllusschlosseri

TIAR, is a nucleic acid binding protein involved in the formation of cytoplasmic foci known as stress granules, in which mRNA translation is temporarily blocked in response to stressful conditions. TIAR is used as stress granules molecular marker in vertebrates, but it is not so deeply investigated in invertebrates, especially in marine organisms. In the present work, we investigated the role of TIAR in the colonial ascidian Botryllus schlosseri during its non-embryonic development, featured by the cyclical renewal of the colony. We studied the extent of transcription during the colonial blastogenetic cycle and the location of the transcripts in Botryllus tissues. Using an anti-TIAR antibody specific for ascidians, by immunocytochemistry and immunohistochemistry assays, we studied the expression of the protein in haemolymph cells and body tissues and by transmission electron microscopy we identified its subcellular localisation. The anti-TIAR antibody was also microinjected in the circulatory system of B. schlosseri to study its effect on non-embryonic development and immune responses. Results indicate a delay in the progression of the blastogenetic cycle in injected colonies. In addition, degranulation of circulating cytotoxic cells and phagocytosis by professional, circulating phagocytes, two fundamental processes of innate immunity, were also negatively affected.

Depletion of TIAR impairs embryogenesis via inhibiting zygote genome transcribe

T cell intracellular antigen 1 related protein (TIAR), an RNA-binding protein (RBP), regulates pre-messenger RNA (pre-mRNA) alternative splicing, has been suggested to affect the maturation of primordial germ cells and early mouse embryo development. However, the underlying mechanism remains elusive. In this study, we revealed that TIAR was primarily located in the nucleus at the 2-cell stage embryo, accompanied by highly active transcription. Using immunofluorescence staining and western blotting, we first described the localization and expression level of TIAR during the whole period of oocyte matured and embryogenesis. Knocked down of TIAR could significantly inhibit transcribed and blocked the early mouse embryo development. Combined with RNAP II inhibitor and pre-RNA splicing inhibitor treatment, we further supposed that TIAR might affect transcription at 2-cell via regulating pre-mRNA splicing, and then regulate early mouse embryo development. Collectively, our results provided a novel and potential understanding of TIAR in embryogenesis, suggesting TIAR is required for transcription and embryonic development.

RNA binding protein TIAR modulates HBV replication by tipping the balance of pgRNA translation

The pregenomic RNA (pgRNA) of hepatitis B virus (HBV) serves not only as a bicistronic message RNA to translate core protein (Cp) and DNA polymerase (Pol), but also as the template for reverse transcriptional replication of viral DNA upon packaging into nucleocapsid. Although it is well known that pgRNA translates much more Cp than Pol, the molecular mechanism underlying the regulation of Cp and Pol translation efficiency from pgRNA remains elusive. In this study, we systematically profiled HBV nucleocapsid- and pgRNA-associated cellular proteins by proteomic analysis and identified TIA-1-related protein (TIAR) as a novel cellular protein that binds pgRNA and promotes HBV DNA replication. Interestingly, loss- and gain-of-function genetic analyses showed that manipulation of TIAR expression did not alter the levels of HBV transcripts nor the secretion of HBsAg and HBeAg in human hepatoma cells supporting HBV replication. However, Ribo-seq and PRM-based mass spectrometry analyses demonstrated that TIAR increased the translation of Pol but decreased the translation of Cp from pgRNA. RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) and pulldown assays further revealed that TIAR directly binds pgRNA at the 5' stem-loop (ε). Moreover, HBV replication or Cp expression induced the increased expression and redistribution of TIAR from the nucleus to the cytoplasm of hepatocytes. Our results thus imply that TIAR is a novel cellular factor that regulates HBV replication by binding to the 5' ε structure of pgRNA to tip the balance of Cp and Pol translation. Through induction of TIAR translocation from the nucleus to the cytoplasm, Cp indirectly regulates the Pol translation and balances Cp and Pol expression levels in infected hepatocytes to ensure efficient viral replication.

Alternative Splicing, RNA Editing, and the Current Limits of Next Generation Sequencing

The advent of next generation sequencing (NGS) has fostered a shift in basic analytic strategies of a gene expression analysis in diverse pathologies for the purposes of research, pharmacology, and personalized medicine. What was once highly focused research on individual signaling pathways or pathway members has, from the time of gene expression arrays, become a global analysis of gene expression that has aided in identifying novel pathway interactions, the discovery of new therapeutic targets, and the establishment of disease-associated profiles for assessing progression, stratification, or a therapeutic response. But there are significant caveats to this analysis that do not allow for the construction of the full picture. The lack of timely updates to publicly available databases and the "hit and miss" deposition of scientific data to these databases relegate a large amount of potentially important data to "garbage", begging the question, "how much are we really missing?" This brief perspective aims to highlight some of the limitations that RNA binding/modifying proteins and RNA processing impose on our current usage of NGS technologies as relating to cancer and how not fully appreciating the limitations of current NGS technology may negatively affect therapeutic strategies in the long run.

Skipper analysis of eCLIP datasets enables sensitive detection of constrained translation factor binding sites

Technology for crosslinking and immunoprecipitation (CLIP) followed by sequencing (CLIP-seq) has identified the transcriptomic targets of hundreds of RNA-binding proteins in cells. To increase the power of existing and future CLIP-seq datasets, we introduce Skipper, an end-to-end workflow that converts unprocessed reads into annotated binding sites using an improved statistical framework. Compared with existing methods, Skipper on average calls 210%-320% more transcriptomic binding sites and sometimes >1,000% more sites, providing deeper insight into post-transcriptional gene regulation. Skipper also calls binding to annotated repetitive elements and identifies bound elements for 99% of enhanced CLIP experiments. We perform nine translation factor enhanced CLIPs and apply Skipper to learn determinants of translation factor occupancy, including transcript region, sequence, and subcellular localization. Furthermore, we observe depletion of genetic variation in occupied sites and nominate transcripts subject to selective constraint because of translation factor occupancy. Skipper offers fast, easy, customizable, and state-of-the-art analysis of CLIP-seq data.

Regulation of pre-mRNA splicing: roles in physiology and disease, and therapeutic prospects

The removal of introns from mRNA precursors and its regulation by alternative splicing are key for eukaryotic gene expression and cellular function, as evidenced by the numerous pathologies induced or modified by splicing alterations. Major recent advances have been made in understanding the structures and functions of the splicing machinery, in the description and classification of physiological and pathological isoforms and in the development of the first therapies for genetic diseases based on modulation of splicing. Here, we review this progress and discuss important remaining challenges, including predicting splice sites from genomic sequences, understanding the variety of molecular mechanisms and logic of splicing regulation, and harnessing this knowledge for probing gene function and disease aetiology and for the design of novel therapeutic approaches.

A splicing silencer in SMN2 intron 6 is critical in spinal muscular atrophy

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a fatal neuromuscular disease caused by homozygous deletions or mutations of the SMN1 gene. SMN2 is a paralogous gene of SMN1 and a modifying gene of SMA. A better understanding of how SMN2 exon 7 splicing is regulated helps discover new therapeutic targets for SMA therapy. Based on an antisense walk method to map exonic and intronic splicing silencers (ESSs and ISSs) in SMN2 exon 7 and the proximal regions of its flanking introns, we identified one ISS (ISS6-KH) at upstream of the branch point site in intron 6. By using mutagenesis-coupled RT-PCR with SMN1/2 minigenes, immunochromatography, overexpression and siRNA-knockdown, we found this ISS consists of a bipartite hnRNP A1 binding cis-element and a poly-U sequence located between the proximal hnRNP A1 binding site (UAGCUA) and the branch site. Both HuR and hnRNP C1 proteins promote exon 7 skipping through the poly-U stretch. Mutations or deletions of these motifs lead to efficient SMN2 exon 7 inclusion comparable to SMN1 gene. Furthermore, we identified an optimal antisense oligonucleotide that binds the intron six ISS and causes striking exon 7 inclusion in the SMN2 gene in patient fibroblasts and SMA mouse model. Our findings demonstrate that this novel ISS plays an important role in SMN2 exon 7 skipping and highlight a new therapeutic target for SMA therapy.

A genetic screen in Arabidopsis reveals the identical roles for RBP45d and PRP39a in 5' cryptic splice site selection

Cryptic splice sites in eukaryotic genome are generally dormant unless activated by mutation of authentic splice sites or related splicing factors. How cryptic splice sites are used remains unclear in plants. Here, we identified two cryptic splicing regulators, RBP45d and PRP39a that are homologs of yeast U1 auxiliary protein Nam8 and Prp39, respectively, via genetic screening for suppressors of the virescent sot5 mutant, which results from a point mutation at the 5' splice site (5' ss) of SOT5 intron 7. Loss-of-function mutations in RBP45d and PRP39a significantly increase the level of a cryptically spliced variant that encodes a mutated but functional sot5 protein, rescuing sot5 to the WT phenotype. We furtherly demonstrated that RBP45d and PRP39a interact with each other and also with the U1C, a core subunit of U1 snRNP. We found that RBP45d directly binds to the uridine (U)-rich RNA sequence downstream the 5' ss of SOT5 intron 7. However, other RBP45/47 members do not function redundantly with RBP45d, at least in regulation of cryptic splicing. Taken together, RBP45d promotes U1 snRNP to recognize the specific 5' ss via binding to intronic U-rich elements in plants.

The splicing regulators TIA1 and TIAL1 are required for the expression of the DNA damage repair machinery during B cell lymphopoiesis

B cell lymphopoiesis requires dynamic modulation of the B cell transcriptome for timely coordination of somatic mutagenesis and DNA repair in progenitor B (pro-B) cells. Here, we show that, in pro-B cells, the RNA-binding proteins T cell intracellular antigen 1 (TIA1) and TIA1-like protein (TIAL1) act redundantly to enable developmental progression. They are global splicing regulators that control the expression of hundreds of mRNAs, including those involved in DNA damage repair. Mechanistically, TIA1 and TIAL1 bind to 5' splice sites for exon definition, splicing, and expression of DNA damage sensors, such as Chek2 and Rif1. In their absence, pro-B cells show exacerbated DNA damage, altered P53 expression, and increased cell death. Our study uncovers the importance of tight regulation of RNA splicing by TIA1 and TIAL1 for the expression of integrative transcriptional programs that control DNA damage sensing and repair during B cell development.

T-Cell Intracellular Antigen 1-Like Protein in Physiology and Pathology

T-cell intracellular antigen 1 (TIA1)-related/like (TIAR/TIAL1) protein is a multifunctional RNA-binding protein (RBP) involved in regulating many aspects of gene expression, independently or in combination with its paralog TIA1. TIAR was first described in 1992 by Paul Anderson’s lab in relation to the development of a cell death phenotype in immune system cells, as it possesses nucleolytic activity against cytotoxic lymphocyte target cells. Similar to TIA1, it is characterized by a subcellular nucleo-cytoplasmic localization and ubiquitous expression in the cells of different tissues of higher organisms. In this paper, we review the relevant structural and functional information available about TIAR from a triple perspective (molecular, cellular and pathophysiological), paying special attention to its expression and regulation in cellular events and processes linked to human pathophysiology.

In Situ Peroxidase Labeling Followed by Mass-Spectrometry Reveals TIA1 Interactome

TIA1 is a broadly expressed DNA/RNA binding protein that regulates multiple aspects of RNA metabolism. It is best known for its role in stress granule assembly during the cellular stress response. Three RNA recognition motifs mediate TIA1 functions along with a prion-like domain that supports multivalent protein-protein interactions that are yet poorly characterized. Here, by fusing the enhanced ascorbate peroxidase 2 (APEX2) biotin-labeling enzyme to TIA1 combined with mass spectrometry, the proteins in the immediate vicinity of TIA1 were defined in situ. Eighty-six and 203 protein partners, mostly associated with ribonucleoprotein complexes, were identified in unstressed control and acute stress conditions, respectively. Remarkably, the repertoire of TIA1 protein partners was highly dissimilar between the two cellular states. Under unstressed control conditions, the biological processes associated with the TIA1 interactome were enriched for cytosolic ontologies related to mRNA metabolism, such as translation initiation, nucleocytoplasmic transport, and RNA catabolism, while the protein identities were primarily represented by RNA binding proteins, ribosomal subunits, and eicosanoid regulators. Under acute stress, TIA1-labeled partners displayed a broader subcellular distribution that included the chromosomes and mitochondria. The enriched biological processes included splicing, translation, and protein synthesis regulation, while the molecular function of the proteins was enriched for RNA binding activity, ribosomal subunits, DNA double-strand break repair, and amide metabolism. Altogether, these data highlight the TIA1 spatial environment with its different partners in diverse cellular states and pave the way to dissect TIA1 role in these processes.

Pervasive misannotation of microexons that are evolutionarily conserved and crucial for gene function in plants

It is challenging to identify the smallest microexons (≤15-nt) due to their small size. Consequently, these microexons are often misannotated or missed entirely during genome annotation. Here, we develop a pipeline to accurately identify 2,398 small microexons in 10 diverse plant species using 990 RNA-seq datasets, and most of them have not been annotated in the reference genomes. Analysis reveals that microexons tend to have increased detained flanking introns that require post-transcriptional splicing after polyadenylation. Examination of 45 conserved microexon clusters demonstrates that microexons and associated gene structures can be traced back to the origin of land plants. Based on these clusters, we develop an algorithm to genome-wide model coding microexons in 132 plants and find that microexons provide a strong phylogenetic signal for plant organismal relationships. Microexon modeling reveals diverse evolutionary trajectories, involving microexon gain and loss and alternative splicing. Our work provides a comprehensive view of microexons in plants.

The small size (≤15-nt) of micorexons poses difficulties for genome annotation and identification using standard RNA sequence mapping approaches. Here, the authors develop computational pipelines to discover and predict microexons in plants and reveal diverse evolutionary trajectories via genomewide microexon modeling.

The Multifunctional Faces of T-Cell Intracellular Antigen 1 in Health and Disease

T-cell intracellular antigen 1 (TIA1) is an RNA-binding protein that is expressed in many tissues and in the vast majority of species, although it was first discovered as a component of human cytotoxic T lymphocytes. TIA1 has a dual localization in the nucleus and cytoplasm, where it plays an important role as a regulator of gene-expression flux. As a multifunctional master modulator, TIA1 controls biological processes relevant to the physiological functioning of the organism and the development and/or progression of several human pathologies. This review summarizes our current knowledge of the molecular aspects and cellular processes involving TIA1, with relevance for human pathophysiology.

Systematic characterization of short intronic splicing-regulatory elements in SMN2 pre-mRNA

Intronic splicing enhancers and silencers (ISEs and ISSs) are two groups of splicing-regulatory elements (SREs) that play critical roles in determining splice-site selection, particularly for alternatively spliced introns or exons. SREs are often short motifs; their mutation or dysregulation of their cognate proteins frequently causes aberrant splicing and results in disease. To date, however, knowledge about SRE sequences and how they regulate splicing remains limited. Here, using an SMN2 minigene, we generated a complete pentamer-sequence library that comprises all possible combinations of 5 nucleotides in intron 7, at a fixed site downstream of the 5′ splice site. We systematically analyzed the effects of all 1023 mutant pentamers on exon 7 splicing, in comparison to the wild-type minigene, in HEK293 cells. Our data show that the majority of pentamers significantly affect exon 7 splicing: 584 of them are stimulatory and 230 are inhibitory. To identify actual SREs, we utilized a motif set enrichment analysis (MSEA), from which we identified groups of stimulatory and inhibitory SRE motifs. We experimentally validated several strong SREs in SMN1/2 and other minigene settings. Our results provide a valuable resource for understanding how short RNA sequences regulate splicing. Many novel SREs can be explored further to elucidate their mechanism of action.

Identification of TIA1 mRNA targets during human neuronal development

Background

Neuronal development is a tightly controlled process involving multi-layered regulatory mechanisms. While transcriptional pathways regulating neurodevelopment are well characterized, post-transcriptional programs are still poorly understood. TIA1 is an RNA-binding protein that can regulate splicing, stability, or translation of target mRNAs, and has been shown to play critical roles in stress response and neurodevelopment. However, the identity of mRNAs regulated by TIA1 during neurodevelopment under unstressed conditions is still unknown.

Methods and Results

To identify the mRNAs targeted by TIA1 during the first stages of human neurodevelopment, we performed RNA immunoprecipitation-sequencing (RIP-seq) on human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and derived neural progenitor cells (NPCs), and cortical neurons under unstressed conditions. While there was no change in TIA1 protein levels, the number of TIA1 targeted mRNAs decreased from pluripotent cells to neurons. We identified 2400, 845, and 330 TIA1 mRNA targets in hESCs, NPC, and neurons, respectively. The vast majority of mRNA targets in hESC were genes associated with neurodevelopment and included autism spectrum disorder-risk genes that were not bound in neurons. Additionally, we found that most TIA1 mRNA targets have reduced ribosomal engagement levels.

Conclusion

Our results reveal TIA1 mRNA targets in hESCs and during human neurodevelopment, indicate that translation repression is a key process targeted by TIA1 binding and implicate TIA1 function in neuronal differentiation.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11033-021-06634-0.

CD46 splice variant enhances translation of specific mRNAs linked to an aggressive tumor cell phenotype in bladder cancer

CD46 is well known to be involved in diverse biological processes. Although several splice variants of CD46 have been identified, little is known about the contribution of alternative splicing to its tumorigenic functions. In this study, we found that exclusion of CD46 exon 13 is significantly increased in bladder cancer (BCa) samples. In BCa cell lines, enforced expression of CD46-CYT2 (exon 13-skipping isoform) promoted, and CD46-CYT1 (exon 13-containing isoform) attenuated, cell growth, migration, and tumorigenicity in a xenograft model. We also applied interaction proteomics to identify exhaustively the complexes containing the CYT1 or CYT2 domain in EJ-1 cells. 320 proteins were identified that interact with the CYT1 and/or CYT2 domain, and most of them are new interactors. Using an internal ribosome entry site (IRES)-dependent reporter system, we established that CD46 could regulate mRNA translation through an interaction with the translation machinery. We also identified heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNP)A1 as a novel CYT2 binding partner, and this interaction facilitates the interaction of hnRNPA1 with IRES RNA to promote IRES-dependent translation of HIF1a and c-Myc. Strikingly, the splicing factor SRSF1 is highly correlated with CD46 exon 13 exclusion in clinical BCa samples. Taken together, our findings contribute to understanding the role of CD46 in BCa development.

Intron retention is a robust marker of intertumoral heterogeneity in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is an aggressive cancer with a 5-year survival rate of <8%. Unsupervised clustering of 76 PDAC patients based on intron retention (IR) events resulted in two clusters of tumors (IR-1 and IR-2). While gene expression-based clusters are not predictive of patient outcome in this cohort, the clusters we developed based on intron retention were associated with differences in progression-free interval. IR levels are lower and clinical outcome is worse in IR-1 compared with IR-2. Oncogenes were significantly enriched in the set of 262 differentially retained introns between the two IR clusters. Higher IR levels in IR-2 correlate with higher gene expression, consistent with detention of intron-containing transcripts in the nucleus in IR-2. Out of 258 genes encoding RNA-binding proteins (RBP) that were differentially expressed between IR-1 and IR-2, the motifs for seven RBPs were significantly enriched in the 262-intron set, and the expression of 25 RBPs were highly correlated with retention levels of 139 introns. Network analysis suggested that retention of introns in IR-2 could result from disruption of an RBP protein-protein interaction network previously linked to efficient intron removal. Finally, IR-based clusters developed for the majority of the 20 cancer types surveyed had two clusters with asymmetrical distributions of IR events like PDAC, with one cluster containing mostly intron loss events. Taken together, our findings suggest IR may be an important biomarker for subclassifying tumors.

LINC00649 underexpression is an adverse prognostic marker in acute myeloid leukemia

BACKGROUND

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNA) play a role in leukemogenesis, maintenance, development, and therapeutic resistance of AML. While few studies have focused on the prognostic significance of LINC00649 in AML, which we aim to investigate in this present study.

METHODS

We compared the expression level of LINC00649 between AML patients and healthy controls. The Kaplan-Meier curves of AML patients expressing high versus low level of LINC00649 was performed. The LINC00649 correlated genes/miRNAs/lncRNAs and methylation CpG sites were screened by Pearson correlation analysis with R (version 3.6.0), using TCGA-LAML database. The LINC00649 associated ceRNA network was established using lncBase 2.0 and miRWalk 2.0 online tools, combining results from correlation analysis. Finally, a prediction model was constructed using LASSO-Cox regression.

RESULTS

LINC00649 was underexpressed in bone marrow of AML group than that in healthy control group. The patients of LINC00649-low group have significantly inferior PFS and OS. A total of 154 mRNAs, 31 miRNAs, 28 lncRNAs and 1590 methylated CpG sites were identified to be significantly correlated with LINC00649. Furthermore, the network of ceRNA was established with 6 miRNAs and 122 mRNAs. The Lasso-Cox model fitted OS/PFS to novel prediction models, which integrated clinical factors, ELN risk stratification, mRNA/miRNA expression and methylation profiles. The analysis of time-dependent ROC for our model showed a superior AUC (AUC = 0.916 at 1 year, AUC = 0.916 at 3 years, and AUC = 0.891 at 5 years).

CONCLUSIONS

Low expression of LINC00649 is a potential unfavorable prognostic marker for AML patients, which requires the further validation. The analysis by LASSO-COX regression identified a novel comprehensive model with a superior diagnostic utility, which integrated clinical and genetic variables.

Identification of novel nucleotide sequence variations in an extended region of the bovine leptin gene (LEP) across a variety of cattle breeds from New Zealand and Nigeria

Leptin is mainly secreted by white adipose tissue in animals. Leptin acts by stimulating or inhibiting the release of a neurotransmitter, which eventually results in a decrease in food/feed intake and an increase in energy expenditure. In this investigation, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) coupled with single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) analysis was used to reveal nucleotide sequence variations in bovine leptin gene (LEP) in 338 cattle of a variety of breeds farmed in New Zealand (NZ) and Nigeria. These included NZ Hereford, Angus, Shorthorn, and crossbred Holstein-Friesian  ×  Jersey cattle and the Nigerian Sokoto Gudali, Red Bororo, White Fulani, and crossbred Holstein-Friesian  ×  White Fulani cattle. Sequence analysis of three regions of bovine LEP that encompassed selected coding and non-coding regions, revealed a total of 12 nucleotide sequence variations (six in exons and six in introns). Of these, three are reported here for the first time, whereas nine have been previously described. Some of the variations identified were common in both the NZ and Nigerian cattle breeds, while others were peculiar to particular breeds from a specific region. The sharing of common variants across different breeds irrespective of geography may indicate an evolutionary relationship, just as the differences within a breed might be attributable to either selective pressure for specific traits or random genetic drift. The detection of both new and previously documented variations in bovine LEP suggests that the gene is highly variable.

SURF: integrative analysis of a compendium of RNA-seq and CLIP-seq datasets highlights complex governing of alternative transcriptional regulation by RNA-binding proteins

Advances in high-throughput profiling of RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) have resulted inCLIP-seq datasets coupled with transcriptome profiling by RNA-seq. However, analysis methods that integrate both types of data are lacking. We describe SURF, Statistical Utility for RBP Functions, for integrative analysis of large collections of CLIP-seq and RNA-seq data. We demonstrate SURF's ability to accurately detect differential alternative transcriptional regulation events and associate them to local protein-RNA interactions. We apply SURF to ENCODE RBP compendium and carry out downstream analysis with additional reference datasets. The results of this application are browsable at http://www.statlab.wisc.edu/shiny/surf/.

Genetic Perturbation of TIA1 Reveals a Physiological Role in Fear Memory

TIA1 is a prion-related RNA-binding protein whose capacity to form various types of intracellular aggregates has been implicated in neurodegenerative disease. However, its role in normal brain function is poorly understood. Here, we show that TIA1 bidirectionally modulates stress-dependent synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus, a brain region involved in fear memory and olfactory discrimination learning. At the behavioral level, conditioned odor avoidance is potentiated by TIA1 deletion, whereas overexpression of TIA1 in the ventral hippocampus inhibits both contextual fear memory and avoidance. However, the latter genetic manipulations have little impact on other hippocampus-dependent tasks. Transcriptional profiling indicates that TIA1 presides over a large network of immune system genes with modulatory roles in synaptic plasticity and long-term memory. Our results uncover a physiological and partly sex-dependent function for TIA1 in fear memory and may provide molecular insight into stress-related psychiatric conditions, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and anxiety.

Genetic variations and haplotypic diversity in the Myostatin gene of New Zealand cattle breeds

Myostatin (MSTN) is a circulating factor that is secreted by muscle cells, and that acts upon those cells to inhibit the proliferation of muscle fibres during pre-natal muscle growth. The Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) coupled with Single Strand Conformational Polymorphism (SSCP) analysis, was used to reveal variation in the bovine MSTN gene (MSTN) in 722 cattle from a variety of breeds farmed in New Zealand (NZ). These included Hereford, Angus, Charolais, Simmental, Red Poll, South Devon, Shorthorn, Murray Grey, cross-bred Holstein-Friesian × Jersey cattle, and other composite breeds of cattle. Sequence analysis of five regions of MSTN that encompassed coding and non-coding regions of the gene, revealed a total of twelve single-nucleotide substitutions (7 in intron 1 and 5 in a region spanning the intron 2 - exon 3 boundary), and a single nucleotide deletion. Of these 12 substitutions, five are reported here for the first time, whereas seven have been previously described. The deletion c.748-78del, was located in the intron 2 - exon 3 boundary region, and has been reported previously. No nucleotide variation was identified in exons 1, 2 and 3. A total of 18 extended haplotypes were resolved spanning two variable regions (intron 1 and the intron 2 - exon 3 boundary), some of which were common across the breeds, while others were peculiar to particular breeds. The genetic variations identified provide insight into the conserved and polymorphic nature of the coding and non-coding sequences of bovine MSTN respectively, and thus provides a baseline for further study into how variation in the gene might affect growth and carcass traits in NZ cattle.

Knockdown of spliceosome U2AF1 significantly inhibits the development of human erythroid cells

U2AF1 (U2AF35) is the small subunit of the U2 auxiliary factor (U2AF) that constitutes the U2 snRNP (small nuclear ribonucleoproteins) of the spliceosome. Here, we examined the function of U2AF1 in human erythropoiesis. First, we examined the expression of U2AF1 during in vitro human erythropoiesis and showed that U2AF1 was highly expressed in the erythroid progenitor burst-forming-unit erythroid (BFU-E) cell stage. A colony assay revealed that U2AF1 knockdown cells failed to form BFU-E and colony-forming-unit erythroid (CFU-E) colonies. Our results further showed that knockdown of U2AF1 significantly inhibited cell growth and induced apoptosis in erythropoiesis. Additionally, knockdown of U2AF1 also delayed terminal erythroid differentiation. To explore the molecular basis of the impaired function of erythroid development, RNA-seq was performed and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis results showed that several biological pathways, including the p53 signalling pathway, MAPK signalling pathway and haematopoietic cell lineage, were involved, with the p53 signalling pathway showing the greatest involvement. Western blot analysis revealed an increase in the protein levels of downstream targets of p53 following U2AF1 knockdown. The data further showed that depletion of U2AF1 altered alternatively spliced apoptosis-associated gene transcripts in CFU-E cells. Our findings elucidate the role of U2AF1 in human erythropoiesis and reveal the underlying mechanisms.

A novel role of U1 snRNP: Splice site selection from a distance

Removal of introns by pre-mRNA splicing is fundamental to gene function in eukaryotes. However, understanding the mechanism by which exon-intron boundaries are defined remains a challenging endeavor. Published reports support that the recruitment of U1 snRNP at the 5'ss marked by GU dinucleotides defines the 5'ss as well as facilitates 3'ss recognition through cross-exon interactions. However, exceptions to this rule exist as U1 snRNP recruited away from the 5'ss retains the capability to define the splice site, where the cleavage takes place. Independent reports employing exon 7 of Survival Motor Neuron (SMN) genes suggest a long-distance effect of U1 snRNP on splice site selection upon U1 snRNP recruitment at target sequences with or without GU dinucleotides. These findings underscore that sequences distinct from the 5'ss may also impact exon definition if U1 snRNP is recruited to them through partial complementarity with the U1 snRNA. In this review we discuss the expanded role of U1 snRNP in splice-site selection due to U1 ability to be recruited at more sites than predicted solely based on GU dinucleotides.

The TIA1 RNA-Binding Protein Family Regulates EIF2AK2-Mediated Stress Response and Cell Cycle Progression

TIA1 and TIAL1 encode a family of U-rich element mRNA-binding proteins ubiquitously expressed and conserved in metazoans. Using PAR-CLIP, we determined that both proteins bind target sites with identical specificity in 3' UTRs and introns proximal to 5' as well as 3' splice sites. Double knockout (DKO) of TIA1 and TIAL1 increased target mRNA abundance proportional to the number of binding sites and also caused accumulation of aberrantly spliced mRNAs, most of which are subject to nonsense-mediated decay. Loss of PRKRA by mis-splicing triggered the activation of the double-stranded RNA (dsRNA)-activated protein kinase EIF2AK2/PKR and stress granule formation. Ectopic expression of PRKRA cDNA or knockout of EIF2AK2 in DKO cells rescued this phenotype. Perturbation of maturation and/or stability of additional targets further compromised cell cycle progression. Our study reveals the essential contributions of the TIA1 protein family to the fidelity of mRNA maturation, translation, and RNA-stress-sensing pathways in human cells.

Generation of Gene Knockout and Gene Replacement with Complete Removal of Full-length Endogenous Transcript Using CRISPR-Trap

This protocol describes the application of the CRISPR-Trap from designing of the gene targeting strategy to validation of successfully edited clones that was validated on various human cell lines, among them human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs). The advantage of CRISPR-Trap over conventional approaches is the complete removal of any endogenous full-length transcript from the target gene. CRISPR-Trap is applicable for any target gene with no or little coding sequence in its first exon. Several human cell lines and different genes have so far been edited successfully with CRISPR-Trap.

RNA-Binding Proteins in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Significant research efforts are ongoing to elucidate the complex molecular mechanisms underlying amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which may in turn pinpoint potential therapeutic targets for treatment. The ALS research field has evolved with recent discoveries of numerous genetic mutations in ALS patients, many of which are in genes encoding RNA binding proteins (RBPs), including TDP-43, FUS, ATXN2, TAF15, EWSR1, hnRNPA1, hnRNPA2/B1, MATR3 and TIA1. Accumulating evidence from studies on these ALS-linked RBPs suggests that dysregulation of RNA metabolism, cytoplasmic mislocalization of RBPs, dysfunction in stress granule dynamics of RBPs and increased propensity of mutant RBPs to aggregate may lead to ALS pathogenesis. Here, we review current knowledge of the biological function of these RBPs and the contributions of ALS-linked mutations to disease pathogenesis.

Unraveling the Pathways to Neuronal Homeostasis and Disease: Mechanistic Insights into the Role of RNA-Binding Proteins and Associated Factors

The timing, dosage and location of gene expression are fundamental determinants of brain architectural complexity. In neurons, this is, primarily, achieved by specific sets of trans-acting RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) and their associated factors that bind to specific cis elements throughout the RNA sequence to regulate splicing, polyadenylation, stability, transport and localized translation at both axons and dendrites. Not surprisingly, misregulation of RBP expression or disruption of its function due to mutations or sequestration into nuclear or cytoplasmic inclusions have been linked to the pathogenesis of several neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders such as fragile-X syndrome, autism spectrum disorders, spinal muscular atrophy, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia. This review discusses the roles of Pumilio, Staufen, IGF2BP, FMRP, Sam68, CPEB, NOVA, ELAVL, SMN, TDP43, FUS, TAF15, and TIA1/TIAR in RNA metabolism by analyzing their specific molecular and cellular function, the neurological symptoms associated with their perturbation, and their axodendritic transport/localization along with their target mRNAs as part of larger macromolecular complexes termed ribonucleoprotein (RNP) granules.

In Vitro Modulation of Endogenous Alternative Splicing Using Splice-Switching Antisense Oligonucleotides

Regulation of alternative splicing can be harnessed by antisense-based compounds to control gene expression. Antisense-mediated splicing interference has become a valuable molecular tool to modulate endogenous alternative splicing patterns, to correct cryptic or aberrant splicing, to reduce gene expression by triggering nonsense-mediated mRNA decay, and to activate intronic polyadenylation, both in vitro and in vivo. Here, we describe methods to induce and analyze the modulation of RNA processing, using modified splice-switching antisense oligonucleotides, such as phosphorodiamidate morpholino (PMO).

Protein 4.1R Exon 16 3' Splice Site Activation Requires Coordination among TIA1, Pcbp1, and RBM39 during Terminal Erythropoiesis

Exon 16 of protein 4.1R encodes a spectrin/actin-binding peptide critical for erythrocyte membrane stability. Its expression during erythroid differentiation is regulated by alternative pre-mRNA splicing. A UUUUCCCCCC motif situated between the branch point and the 3' splice site is crucial for inclusion. We show that the UUUU region and the last three C residues in this motif are necessary for the binding of splicing factors TIA1 and Pcbp1 and that these proteins appear to act in a collaborative manner to enhance exon 16 inclusion. This element also activates an internal exon when placed in a corresponding intronic position in a heterologous reporter. The impact of these two factors is further enhanced by high levels of RBM39, whose expression rises during erythroid differentiation as exon 16 inclusion increases. TIA1 and Pcbp1 associate in a complex containing RBM39, which interacts with U2AF65 and SF3b155 and promotes U2 snRNP recruitment to the branch point. Our results provide a mechanism for exon 16 3' splice site activation in which a coordinated effort among TIA1, Pcbp1, and RBM39 stabilizes or increases U2 snRNP recruitment, enhances spliceosome A complex formation, and facilitates exon definition through RBM39-mediated splicing regulation.

The RNA-binding profile of Acinus, a peripheral component of the exon junction complex, reveals its role in splicing regulation

Acinus (apoptotic chromatin condensation inducer in the nucleus) is an RNA-binding protein (RBP) originally identified for its role in apoptosis. It was later found to be an auxiliary component of the exon junction complex (EJC), which is deposited at exon junctions as a consequence of pre-mRNA splicing. To uncover the cellular functions of Acinus and investigate its role in splicing, we mapped its endogenous RNA targets using the cross-linking immunoprecipitation protocol (iCLIP). We observed that Acinus binds to pre-mRNAs, associating specifically to a subset of suboptimal introns, but also to spliced mRNAs. We also confirmed the presence of Acinus as a peripheral factor of the EJC. RNA-seq was used to investigate changes in gene expression and alternative splicing following siRNA-mediated depletion of Acinus in HeLa cells. This analysis revealed that Acinus is preferentially required for the inclusion of specific alternative cassette exons and also controls the faithful splicing of a subset of introns. Moreover, a large number of splicing changes can be related to Acinus binding, suggesting a direct role of Acinus in exon and intron definition. In particular, Acinus regulates the splicing of DFFA/ICAD transcript, a major regulator of DNA fragmentation. Globally, the genome-wide identification of RNA targets of Acinus revealed its role in splicing regulation as well as its involvement in other cellular pathways, including cell cycle progression. Altogether, this study uncovers new cellular functions of an RBP transiently associated with the EJC.

Characterization of the Regulation of CD46 RNA Alternative Splicing

Here we present a detailed analysis of the alternative splicing regulation of human CD46, which generates different isoforms with distinct functions. CD46 is a ubiquitous membrane protein that protects host cells from complement and plays other roles in immunity, autophagy, and cell adhesion. CD46 deficiency causes an autoimmune disorder, and this protein is also involved in pathogen infection and cancer. Before this study, the mechanisms of CD46 alternative splicing remained unexplored even though dysregulation of this process has been associated with autoimmune diseases. We proved that the 5' splice sites of CD46 cassette exons 7 and 8 encoding extracellular domains are defined by noncanonical mechanisms of base pairing to U1 small nuclear RNA. Next we characterized the regulation of CD46 cassette exon 13, whose inclusion or skipping generates different cytoplasmic tails with distinct functions. Using splicing minigenes, we identified multiple exonic and intronic splicing enhancers and silencers that regulate exon 13 inclusion via trans-acting splicing factors like PTBP1 and TIAL1. Interestingly, a common splicing activator such as SRSF1 appears to repress CD46 exon 13 inclusion. We also report that expression of CD46 mRNA isoforms is further regulated by non-sense-mediated mRNA decay and transcription speed. Finally, we successfully manipulated CD46 exon 13 inclusion using antisense oligonucleotides, opening up opportunities for functional studies of the isoforms as well as for therapeutics for autoimmune diseases. This study provides insight into CD46 alternative splicing regulation with implications for its function in the immune system and for genetic disease.

T-cell intracellular antigens in health and disease

T-cell intracellular antigen 1 (TIA1) and TIA1-related/like protein (TIAR/TIAL1) are 2 proteins discovered in 1991 as components of cytotoxic T lymphocyte granules. They act in the nucleus as regulators of transcription and pre-mRNA splicing. In the cytoplasm, TIA1 and TIAR regulate and/or modulate the location, stability and/or translation of mRNAs. As knowledge of the different genes regulated by these proteins and the cellular/biological programs in which they are involved increases, it is evident that these antigens are key players in human physiology and pathology. This review will discuss the latest developments in the field, with physiopathological relevance, that point to novel roles for these regulators in the molecular and cell biology of higher eukaryotes.

Genome-wide analysis of TIAR RNA ligands in mouse macrophages before and after LPS stimulation

TIA-1 related protein (TIAR) is a RNA-binding protein involved in several steps of gene expression such as RNA splicing Aznarez et al. (2008) [1] and translation Piecyk et al. (2000) [2]. TIAR contains three RNA recognition motifs (RRMs) allowing its interaction with specific sequences localized in the untranslated regions (UTRs) of several mRNAs. In myeloid cells, TIAR has been shown to bind and regulate the translation and stability of various mRNA-encoding proteins important for the inflammatory response, such as TNFα Piecyk et al. (2000), Gueydan et al. (1999) [2], [3], Cox-2 Cok et al. (2003) [4] or IL-8 Suswam et al. (2005) [5]. Here, we generated two macrophage-like RAW 264.7 cell lines expressing either a tagged full-length TIAR protein or a RRM2-truncated mutant unable to bind RNA with high affinity Dember et al. (1996), Kim et al. (2013) . By a combination of RNA-IP and microarray analysis (RIP-chip), we identified mRNAs specifically bound by the full-length protein both in basal conditions and in response to LPS (GSE77577).

Orthogonal matrix factorization enables integrative analysis of multiple RNA binding proteins

Motivation: RNA binding proteins (RBPs) play important roles in post-transcriptional control of gene expression, including splicing, transport, polyadenylation and RNA stability. To model protein–RNA interactions by considering all available sources of information, it is necessary to integrate the rapidly growing RBP experimental data with the latest genome annotation, gene function, RNA sequence and structure. Such integration is possible by matrix factorization, where current approaches have an undesired tendency to identify only a small number of the strongest patterns with overlapping features. Because protein–RNA interactions are orchestrated by multiple factors, methods that identify discriminative patterns of varying strengths are needed.

Results: We have developed an integrative orthogonality-regularized nonnegative matrix factorization (iONMF) to integrate multiple data sources and discover non-overlapping, class-specific RNA binding patterns of varying strengths. The orthogonality constraint halves the effective size of the factor model and outperforms other NMF models in predicting RBP interaction sites on RNA. We have integrated the largest data compendium to date, which includes 31 CLIP experiments on 19 RBPs involved in splicing (such as hnRNPs, U2AF2, ELAVL1, TDP-43 and FUS) and processing of 3’UTR (Ago, IGF2BP). We show that the integration of multiple data sources improves the predictive accuracy of retrieval of RNA binding sites. In our study the key predictive factors of protein–RNA interactions were the position of RNA structure and sequence motifs, RBP co-binding and gene region type. We report on a number of protein-specific patterns, many of which are consistent with experimentally determined properties of RBPs.

Availability and implementation: The iONMF implementation and example datasets are available at https://github.com/mstrazar/ionmf.

Contact: tomaz.curk@fri.uni-lj.si

Supplementary information:Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

TIA1 oxidation inhibits stress granule assembly and sensitizes cells to stress-induced apoptosis

Cytoplasmic stress granules (SGs) are multimolecular aggregates of stalled translation pre-initiation complexes that prevent the accumulation of misfolded proteins, and that are formed in response to certain types of stress including ER stress. SG formation contributes to cell survival not only by suppressing translation but also by sequestering some apoptosis regulatory factors. Because cells can be exposed to various stresses simultaneously in vivo, the regulation of SG assembly under multiple stress conditions is important but unknown. Here we report that reactive oxygen species (ROS) such as H₂O₂ oxidize the SG-nucleating protein TIA1, thereby inhibiting SG assembly. Thus, when cells are confronted with a SG-inducing stress such as ER stress caused by protein misfolding, together with ROS-induced oxidative stress, they cannot form SGs, resulting in the promotion of apoptosis. We demonstrate that the suppression of SG formation by oxidative stress may underlie the neuronal cell death seen in neurodegenerative diseases.

Cytoplasmic stress granules (SG) are intracellular aggregates that suppress translation and sequester apoptosis regulatory factors. Here the authors show that reactive oxygen species oxidise the SG-nucleating protein TIA1, preventing SG formation and promoting apoptosis in the presence of additional stress.

p53 gene discriminates two ecologically divergent sister species of pine voles

Genes with relevant roles in the differentiation of closely-related species are likely to have diverged simultaneously with the species and more accurately reproduce the species tree. The Lusitanian (Microtus lusitanicus) and Mediterranean (M. duodecimcostatus) pine voles are two recently separated sister species with fossorial lifestyles whose different ecological, physiological and morphological phenotypes reflect the better adaptation of M. duodecimcostatus to the underground habitat. Here we asked whether the differentiation of M. lusitanicus and M. duodecimcostatus involved genetic variations within the tumour suppressor p53 gene, given its role in stress-associated responses. We performed a population-genetic analysis through sequencing of exons and introns of p53 in individuals from sympatric and allopatric populations of both the species in the Iberian Peninsula in which a unidirectional introgression of mitochondrial DNA was previously observed. We were able to discriminate the two species to a large extent. We show that M. duodecimcostatus is composed of one genetically unstructured group of populations sharing a P53 protein that carries a mutation in the DNA-binding region not observed in M. lusitanicus, raising the possibility that this mutation may have been central in the evolutionary history of M. duodecimcostatus. Our results provide suggestive evidence for the involvement of a master transcription factor in the separation of M. lusitanicus and M. duodecimcostatus during Microtus radiation in the Quaternary presumably via a differential adaptive role of the novel p53 in M. duodecimcostatus.

Splicing predictions reliably classify different types of alternative splicing

Alternative splicing is a key player in the creation of complex mammalian transcriptomes and its misregulation is associated with many human diseases. Multiple mRNA isoforms are generated from most human genes, a process mediated by the interplay of various RNA signature elements and trans-acting factors that guide spliceosomal assembly and intron removal. Here, we introduce a splicing predictor that evaluates hundreds of RNA features simultaneously to successfully differentiate between exons that are constitutively spliced, exons that undergo alternative 5' or 3' splice-site selection, and alternative cassette-type exons. Surprisingly, the splicing predictor did not feature strong discriminatory contributions from binding sites for known splicing regulators. Rather, the ability of an exon to be involved in one or multiple types of alternative splicing is dictated by its immediate sequence context, mainly driven by the identity of the exon's splice sites, the conservation around them, and its exon/intron architecture. Thus, the splicing behavior of human exons can be reliably predicted based on basic RNA sequence elements.

Alternative splicing at GYNNGY 5' splice sites: more noise, less regulation

Numerous eukaryotic genes are alternatively spliced. Recently, deep transcriptome sequencing has skyrocketed proportion of alternatively spliced genes; over 95% human multi-exon genes are alternatively spliced. One fundamental question is: are all these alternative splicing (AS) events functional? To look into this issue, we studied the most common form of alternative 5' splice sites-GYNNGYs (Y = C/T), where both GYs can function as splice sites. Global analyses suggest that splicing noise (due to stochasticity of splicing process) can cause AS at GYNNGYs, evidenced by higher AS frequency in non-coding than in coding regions, in non-conserved than in conserved genes and in lowly expressed than in highly expressed genes. However, ∼20% AS GYNNGYs in humans and ∼3% in mice exhibit tissue-dependent regulation. Consistent with being functional, regulated GYNNGYs are more conserved than unregulated ones. And regulated GYNNGYs have distinctive sequence features which may confer regulation. Particularly, each regulated GYNNGY comprises two splice sites more resembling each other than unregulated GYNNGYs, and has more conserved downstream flanking intron. Intriguingly, most regulated GYNNGYs may tune gene expression through coupling with nonsense-mediated mRNA decay, rather than encode different proteins. In summary, AS at GYNNGY 5' splice sites is primarily splicing noise, and secondarily a way of regulation.

Long-term reduction of T-cell intracellular antigens reveals a transcriptome associated with extracellular matrix and cell adhesion components

Knockdown of T-cell intracellular antigens TIA1 and TIAR contributes to a cellular phenotype characterised by uncontrolled proliferation and tumorigenesis. Massive-scale poly(A+) RNA sequencing of TIA1 or TIAR-knocked down HeLa cells reveals transcriptome signatures comprising genes and functional categories potentially able to modulate several aspects of membrane dynamics associated with extracellular matrix and focal/cell adhesion events. The transcriptomic heterogeneity is the result of differentially expressed genes and RNA isoforms generated by alternative splicing and/or promoter usage. These results suggest a role for TIA proteins in the regulation and/or modulation of cellular homeostasis related to focal/cell adhesion, extracellular matrix and membrane and cytoskeleton dynamics.

HIV-2 genomic RNA accumulates in stress granules in the absence of active translation

During the post-transcriptional events of the HIV-2 replication cycle, the full-length unspliced genomic RNA (gRNA) is first used as an mRNA to synthesize Gag and Gag-Pol proteins and then packaged into progeny virions. However, the mechanisms responsible for the coordinate usage of the gRNA during these two mutually exclusive events are poorly understood. Here, we present evidence showing that HIV-2 expression induces stress granule assembly in cultured cells. This contrasts with HIV-1, which interferes with stress granules assembly even upon induced cellular stress. Moreover, we observed that the RNA-binding protein and stress granules assembly factor TIAR associates with the gRNA to form a TIAR-HIV-2 ribonucleoprotein (TH2RNP) complex localizing diffuse in the cytoplasm or aggregated in stress granules. Although the assembly of TH2RNP in stress granules did not require the binding of the Gag protein to the gRNA, we observed that increased levels of Gag promoted both translational arrest and stress granule assembly. Moreover, HIV-2 Gag also localizes to stress granules in the absence of a ‘packageable’ gRNA. Our results indicate that the HIV-2 gRNA is compartmentalized in stress granules in the absence of active translation prior to being selected for packaging by the Gag polyprotein.

AVISPA: a web tool for the prediction and analysis of alternative splicing

Transcriptome complexity and its relation to numerous diseases underpins the need to predict in silico splice variants and the regulatory elements that affect them. Building upon our recently described splicing code, we developed AVISPA, a Galaxy-based web tool for splicing prediction and analysis. Given an exon and its proximal sequence, the tool predicts whether the exon is alternatively spliced, displays tissue-dependent splicing patterns, and whether it has associated regulatory elements. We assess AVISPA's accuracy on an independent dataset of tissue-dependent exons, and illustrate how the tool can be applied to analyze a gene of interest. AVISPA is available at http://avispa.biociphers.org.

Genome-wide profiling reveals a role for T-cell intracellular antigens TIA1 and TIAR in the control of translational specificity in HeLa cells

TIA (T-cell intracellular antigens)-knockdown HeLa cells show an increase in ribosomes and translational machinery components. This increase correlates with specific changes in translationally up-regulated mRNAs involved in cell-cycle progression and DNA repair, as shown in polysomal profiling analysis. Our data support the hypothesis that a concerted activation of both global and selective translational rates leads to the transition to a more proliferative status in TIA-knockdown HeLa cells.

Long-term reduction of T-cell intracellular antigens leads to increased beta-actin expression

BACKGROUND

The permanent down-regulated expression of T-cell intracellular antigen (TIA) proteins in HeLa cells improves cytoskeleton-mediated functions such as cell proliferation and tumor growth.

METHODS

Making use of human and mouse cells with knocked down/out expression of T-cell intracellular antigen 1 (TIA1) and/or TIA1 related/like (TIAR/TIAL1) proteins and classical RNA (e.g. reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction, polysomal profiling analysis using sucrose gradients, immunoblotting, immunoprecipitation, electrophoretic mobility shift assays, ultraviolet light crosslinking and poly (A+) test analysis) and cellular (e.g. immunofluorescence microscopy and quimeric mRNA transfections) biology methods, we have analyzed the regulatory role of TIA proteins in the post-transcriptional modulation of beta-actin (ACTB) mRNA.

RESULTS

Our observations show that the acquisition of above cellular capacities is concomitant with increased expression levels of the actin beta subunit (ACTB) protein. Regulating TIA abundance does not modify ACTB mRNA levels, however, an increase of ACTB mRNA translation is observed. This regulatory capacity of TIA proteins is linked to the ACTB mRNA 3'-untranslated region (3'-UTR), where these proteins could function as RNA binding proteins. The expression of GFP from a chimeric reporter containing human ΑCΤΒ 3'-UTR recapitulates the translational control found by the endogenous ACTB mRNA in the absence of TIA proteins. Additionally, murine embryonic fibroblasts (MEF) knocked out for TIA1 rise mouse ACTB protein expression compared to the controls. Once again steady-state levels of mouse ACTB mRNA remained unchanged.

CONCLUSIONS

Collectively, these results suggest that TIA proteins can function as long-term regulators of the ACTB mRNA metabolism in mouse and human cells.

Structure, dynamics and RNA binding of the multi-domain splicing factor TIA-1

Alternative pre-messenger ribonucleic acid (pre-mRNA) splicing is an essential process in eukaryotic gene regulation. The T-cell intracellular antigen-1 (TIA-1) is an apoptosis-promoting factor that modulates alternative splicing of transcripts, including the pre-mRNA encoding the membrane receptor Fas. TIA-1 is a multi-domain ribonucleic acid (RNA) binding protein that recognizes poly-uridine tract RNA sequences to facilitate 5' splice site recognition by the U1 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein (snRNP). Here, we characterize the RNA interaction and conformational dynamics of TIA-1 by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) and small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). Our NMR-derived solution structure of TIA-1 RRM2-RRM3 (RRM2,3) reveals that RRM2 adopts a canonical RNA recognition motif (RRM) fold, while RRM3 is preceded by an non-canonical helix α0. NMR and SAXS data show that all three RRMs are largely independent structural modules in the absence of RNA, while RNA binding induces a compact arrangement. RRM2,3 binds to pyrimidine-rich FAS pre-mRNA or poly-uridine (U9) RNA with nanomolar affinities. RRM1 has little intrinsic RNA binding affinity and does not strongly contribute to RNA binding in the context of RRM1,2,3. Our data unravel the role of binding avidity and the contributions of the TIA-1 RRMs for recognition of pyrimidine-rich RNAs.

Systematical identification of splicing regulatory cis-elements and cognate trans-factors

The majority of human genes undergo alternative splicing to generate multiple isoforms with distinct functions. This process is generally controlled by cis-acting splicing regulatory elements (SREs) that recruit trans-acting factors to promote or inhibit the use of nearby splice sites. The growing interest in understanding the regulatory rules of splicing necessitates the systematic identification of these SREs and their cognate protein factors using experimental and computational approaches. Here we describe a strategy to identify and analyze both cis-acting SREs and trans-acting splicing factors. This strategy involves a cell-based screen to identify SREs from a random sequences library and a modified RNA affinity purification approach to unbiasedly identify the splicing factors. These methods can be adopted to identify splicing enhancers or silencers in both exons and introns, and can be extended to different cultured cells. The resulting SREs and splicing factors can be further analyzed with a series of computational and experimental approaches. This approach will help us to collect a molecular part-list for splicing regulation, providing a rich data source that enables a better understanding of the "splicing code".