Heat shock activates splicing at latent alternative 5' splice sites in nematodes.

ABSTRACT: Pre-mRNA splicing is essential for the regulation of gene expression in eukaryotes and is fundamental in development and cancer, and involves the selection of a consensus sequence that defines the 5' splice site (5'SS). Human introns harbor multiple sequences that conform to the 5'SS consensus, which are not used under normal growth conditions. Under heat shock conditions, splicing at such intronic latent 5'SSs occurred in thousands of human transcripts, resulting in pre-maturely terminated aberrant proteins. Here we performed a survey of the C. elegans genome, showing that worm's introns contain latent 5'SSs, whose use for splicing would have resulted in pre-maturely terminated mRNAs. Splicing at these latent 5'SSs could not be detected under normal growth conditions, while heat shock act

SUBMITTER: Nevo Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4615375 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature