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SRSF2 mutations impair hematopoiesis and alter exon recognition

ABSTRACT: Mutations within genes encoding spliceosomal proteins are the most common class of mutations in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes, yet it is currently not well understood how these mutations impact hematopoiesis or RNA splicing. Here we report that mutations affecting the splicing factor SRSF2 alter its normal RNA recognition activity, resulting in impaired hematopoietic differentiation and myelodysplasia. Commonly occurring SRSF2 mutations impaired wildtype SRSF2’s normal RNA-binding avidity and preference for specific exonic splicing enhancer RNA motifs. Integration of murine and human transcriptome data identified recurrent mis-splicing of key transcriptional regulators in the presence of mutant SRSF2, including promotion of a highly conserved “poison” exon of EZH2 that results in nonsense-mediated decay and contributes to impaired hematopoiesis. These data provide a mechanistic basis for the enrichment of specific mutations in spliceosomal proteins in myelodysplasia, and suggest that altered RNA recognition activity is a novel mechanism of leukemogenesis.

ORGANISM(S): Mus musculus Homo sapiens

PROVIDER: GSE65349 | GEO | 2015/05/12

SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA273749

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:Mutations in spliceosomal genes are commonly found in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML). These mutations occur at highly restricted amino acid residues and perturb normal splice site and exon recognition. Spliceosomal mutations are always heterozygous and rarely co-occur with one another, suggesting that cells may only tolerate a partial deviation from normal splicing activity. To test this hypothesis, we generated mice with inducible hemizygous expression of the commonly occurring SRSF2P95H mutation in the hematopoietic system. These mice rapidly developed lethal bone marrow failure upon activation of the Srsf2P95H mutation with concomitant deletion of the wildtype Srsf2 allele, demonstrating that Srsf2-mutant cells depend on the wildtype Srsf2 allele for survival. We next tested whether spliceosomal-mutant leukemias display greater sensitivity to pharmacologic splicing inhibition induced by the small molecule E7107. Treatment of isogenic murine leukemias as well as patient-derived xenograft (PDX) AMLs showed significant reductions in leukemic burden specifically in samples carrying spliceosomal mutations. Collectively, these data provide genetic and pharmacologic evidence that leukemias with spliceosomal mutations are preferentially susceptible to additional splicing perturbations in vivo compared with wildtype counterparts. Modulation of spliceosome function may provide a novel therapeutic avenue in genetically defined subsets of MDS/AML patients. We created an isogenic murine leukemia model by retroviral overexpression of the MLL-AF9 fusion oncogene in Vav-Cre Srsf2+/+ or Vav-Cre Srsf2P95H/+ BM cells followed by transplantation into lethally irradiated recipient mice. In order to determine the mechanistic origins of the Srsf2 mutant-selective effects of E7107, we analyzed transcriptional changes after five consecutive days of E7107 or vehicle treatment in vivo. GFP+ Cd11b+ cells were purified from the BM of recipient mice exactly three hours after the last dose of E7107 and were subjected to paired-end 2x50bp RNA-seq. For the knock-in/knock-out experiments, we generated inducible, hemizygous Srsf2P95H mice to study the effects of wildtype Srsf2 deletion with concomitant activation of the Srsf2P95H allele. Mx1-cre Srsf2fl/+ mice were crossed to Srsf2P95H/+ mice to generate Srsf2 wildtype (Mx1-cre Srsf2+/+), Srsf2 heterozygous knockout (Mx1-Cre Srsf2+/-), Srsf2 heterozygous P95H mutant (Mx1-Cre Srsf2P95H/+), and Srsf2 hemizygous P95H mutant (Mx1-Cre Srsf2P95H/-) mice, which were subjected to single-end 101bp RNA-seq.

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SRSF2 mutations impair hematopoiesis and alter exon recognition

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