Project description:Systematic mutagenesis has revealed that synonymous, non-synonymous and intronic mutations frequently alter the inclusion levels of alternatively spliced exons, suggesting that altered splicing might be a common mechanism by which mutations cause disease. However, most exons expressed in any cell are highly-included in mature mRNAs. Here, by performing deep mutagenesis of highly-included exons and by analysing the association between sequence variation and exon inclusion across the genome, we report that mutations only very rarely alter the inclusion of highly-included exons. This is true for both exonic and intronic mutations as well as for perturbations in trans. Therefore, mutations that affect splicing are not evenly distributed across the genome but are focussed in and around alternatively spliced exons with intermediate inclusion levels. These results provide a resource for prioritising synonymous and other variants as disease-causing mutations.
Project description:Here we investigate the role of the splicing factor RBFOX2 in the liver. Our work describes a new regulatory mechanism where RBFOX2 controls cholesterol level, by coordinating the inclusion/exclusion of alternatively spliced exons in the liver. This SuperSeries is composed of the SubSeries listed below.
Project description:Most human transcripts are alternatively spliced, and many disease-causing mutations affect RNA splicing. Towards better modeling the sequence determinants of alternative splicing, we measured the splicing patterns of nearly 2 million (M) synthetic mini-genes, which include degenerate subsequences totaling to nearly 100M bases of variation. The massive size of these training data allowed us to improve upon current models of splicing as well as to gain new mechanistic insights. Our results show that a vast majority of hexamer sequence motifs measurably influence splice site selection when positioned within alternative exons, with multiple motifs acting additively rather than cooperatively. Intriguingly, motifs that enhance (suppress) exon inclusion in alternative 5’ splicing also enhance (suppress) exon inclusion in alternative 3’ or cassette exon splicing, suggesting a universal mechanism for alternative exon recognition. Finally, our empirically trained models are highly predictive of the effects of naturally occurring variants on alternative splicing in vivo.
Project description:Abstract: Alternative splicing (AS) plays a major role in the generation of proteomic diversity and in gene regulation. However, the role of the basal splicing machinery in regulating AS remains poorly understood. Here we show that the core snRNP protein SmB/B’ self-regulates its expression by promoting the inclusion of a highly-conserved alternative exon in its own pre-mRNA that targets the spliced transcript for nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD). Depletion of SmB/B’ in human cells results in reduced levels of snRNPs and in a striking reduction in the inclusion levels of hundreds of alternative exons, with comparatively few effects on constitutive exon splicing levels. The affected alternative exons are enriched in genes encoding RNA processing and other RNA binding factors, and a subset of these exons also regulate gene expression by activating NMD. Our results thus demonstrate a role for the core spliceosomal machinery in controlling an exon network that appears to modulate the levels of many RNA processing factors.
Project description:Structural Maintenance of Chromosomes Flexible Hinge Domain Containing 1 (SMCHD1) is a non-canonical member of the structural maintenance of chromosomes (SMC) protein family involved in the regulation of chromatin structure, epigenetic regulation and transcription. Mutations in SMCHD1 cause facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy type 2 (FSHD2), a rare genetic disorder characterized by progressive muscle weakness and wasting, believed to be caused by aberrant expression of DUX4 in muscle cells. Here we suggest a new role for SMCHD1 as a regulator of alternative splicing, and demonstrate how splicing alteration caused by SMCHD1 mutations lead to DUX4 expression and FSHD pathogenesis. Analyzing RNA-seq data from muscle biopsies of FSHD2 patients and FSHD2 mouse model found that hundreds of genes were alternatively spliced upon SMCHD1 mutation. At least 20% of alternatively spliced genes were associated with abnormalities of the musculature. Moreover, we show that alternatively spliced exons tend to be bound by SMCHD1, and SMCHD1 bound exons demonstrate slower elongation rate, suggesting SMCHD1 binding promotes exon exclusion by slowing RNAPII. Specifically, we discovered that SMCHD1 mutations promotes the splicing of the DNMT3B1 isoform of DNMT3B, which leads to hypomethylation of the D4Z4 region and DUX4 expression. These results suggest that alternative splicing regulated by SMCHD1 may play a major role in FSHD2 pathogenesis by promoting alternative splicing of different targets including DNMT3B, and highlight the potential for targeting alternative splicing as a therapeutic strategy for this disorder.
Project description:We used RNA-seq platform to determine role of a splicing factor RBM25 in regulation of gene expression and pre-mRNA splicing. We found that a loss-of-function allele of RBM25, rbm25-1, causes up- and down-regulation of a large number of genes. We further found that the rbm25-1 mutation results in defects in altenative splicing of transcripts of many genes including signal transduction components in stress responses. Examination of mRNA levels in bulked individual wild type and rbm25-1 mutant seedlings before and after ABA treatment.
Project description:Splicing of transcripts is catalyzed by the spliceosome, a mega-complex consisting of hundreds of proteins and five snRNAs, which employs direct interactions. When U1 snRNA forms high affinity binding, namely more than eight base-pairs, with the 5’SS, the result is usually a suppressing effect on the splicing activity. This likely occurs due to the inefficient unwinding of U1/5’SS base-pairing, or other regulatory obstructions. Here we show in vitro and in patient-derived cell lines that pre-microRNAs can modulate the splicing reaction by interacting with U1 snRNA. This leads to reduced binding affinity to the 5’SS, and hence promotes the inclusion of exons containing 5’SS, despite sequence-based high affinity to U1. Application of the mechanism resulted in correction of the splicing defect in the disease-causing VCAN gene from an individual with Wagner syndrome. This pre-miRNA/U1 interaction can regulate the expression of alternatively spliced exons, thus extending the scope of mechanisms regulating splicing.
Project description:It is generally thought that splicing factors regulate alternative splicing through binding to RNA consensus sequences. In addition to these linear motifs, RNA secondary structure is emerging as an important layer in splicing regulation. Here we demonstrate that RNA elements with G-quadruplex forming capacity promote exon inclusion. Destroying G-quadruplex forming capacity while keeping G-tracts intact abrogates exon inclusion. Analysis of RNA binding protein footprints revealed that G-quadruplexes are enriched in hnRNPF-binding sites and near hnRNPF-regulated alternatively spliced exons in the human transcriptome. Moreover, hnRNPF regulates an EMT-associated CD44 isoform switch in a G-quadruplex-dependent manner, which results in inhibition of EMT. Mining breast cancer TCGA datasets, we demonstrate that hnRNPF negatively correlates with an EMT gene signature and positively correlates with patient survival. These data suggest a critical role for RNA G-quadruplexes in regulating alternative splicing. Modulation of G-quadruplex structural integrity may control cellular processes important for tumor progression.
Project description:Abstract: Alternative splicing (AS) plays a major role in the generation of proteomic diversity and in gene regulation. However, the role of the basal splicing machinery in regulating AS remains poorly understood. Here we show that the core snRNP protein SmB/B’ self-regulates its expression by promoting the inclusion of a highly-conserved alternative exon in its own pre-mRNA that targets the spliced transcript for nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD). Depletion of SmB/B’ in human cells results in reduced levels of snRNPs and in a striking reduction in the inclusion levels of hundreds of alternative exons, with comparatively few effects on constitutive exon splicing levels. The affected alternative exons are enriched in genes encoding RNA processing and other RNA binding factors, and a subset of these exons also regulate gene expression by activating NMD. Our results thus demonstrate a role for the core spliceosomal machinery in controlling an exon network that appears to modulate the levels of many RNA processing factors. HeLa cells were transfected with a control non-targeting siRNA pool (siNT), or with siRNA pools designed to knockdown SmB/B' or SRSF1 (also known as SF2/ASF/SFRS1). Sequence reads were aligned to exon-exon junction sequences in a database of EST/cDNA-mined cassette-type alternative splicing events. Processed data files (.bed and .txt) provided as supplementary files on the Series record. Processed data file build information: hg18.