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Nuclear speckles enable processing of RNA from GC-rich isochores

ABSTRACT: Nuclear speckles are conserved, membrane-less organelles linked to various post-transcriptional processes. Here, we examined their roles in human cells by engineered, acute removal of SON and SRRM2, two conserved speckle core components characterized by intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs). Their removal results in a significant downregulation of GC-rich genes with short introns clustered within GC-rich isochores, caused by inefficient and chaotic splicing; in contrast, expression or splicing of genes outside these isochores remains unaffected. Comparative analysis across eukaryotes, from fungi to mammals, reveals that both GC-rich isochores and speckles are found exclusively in amniotes; moreover, the IDRs of SON have undergone notable expansion in the latter. Together, these findings suggest that the expansion of IDRs in vertebrates facilitated an increase in GC content by creating a condensate essential for splicing the by-products of this process: GC-rich, levelled exon-intron architectures.

INSTRUMENT(S):

ORGANISM(S): Homo Sapiens (human)

TISSUE(S): Permanent Cell Line Cell

SUBMITTER: David Meierhofer

LAB HEAD: Tugce Aktas

PROVIDER: PXD009359 | Pride | 2026-02-25

REPOSITORIES: Pride

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			Action	DRS
	CSSde7_S1-B7_1_3439.d.dia	Other
	CSSde8_S1-B8_1_3440.d.dia	Other
	CSSde9_S1-B9_1_3441.d.dia	Other
	CSSdp10_S1-B10_1_3442.d.dia	Other
	CSSdp11_S1-B11_1_3443.d.dia	Other

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Project description:The nucleus of higher eukaryotes is a highly compartmentalized and dynamic organelle consisting of several biological condensates that regulate gene expression at multiple levels. First reported more than 100 years ago by Ramón y Cajal, nuclear speckles (NS) are among the most prominent of such condensates, which were independently rediscovered multiple times and are also known as interchromatin granule clusters (ICGs), splicing speckles, or SC35 domains. Despite their prevalence, research on the function of NS is virtually restricted to colocalization analyses, since an organizing core, without which NS cannot form, remains unidentiﬁed. The monoclonal antibody SC35, which was raised against a spliceosomal extract, is a frequently used reagent to mark NS since its debut in 1990. Despite its proliﬁc use, and the consensus regarding its primary target as SRSF2, clear inconsistencies between observations made with mAb SC35, and transgenic SRSF2 constructs in the same experiment are noted. Intrigued by these disparities, we carried out a systematic re-characterization of this monoclonal antibody and its cellular targets. Unexpectedly, we found no evidence for SC35 mAb recognizing SRSF2 in human cells. In contrast, our results show that the 35 kDa namesake protein recognized by SC35 mAb is SRSF7, a related but distinct SR protein. More importantly, using mass-spectrometry, CRISPR-mediated knock-ins, immunoblotting and ﬂuorescence microscopy, we show that the main target of SC35 mAb is SRRM2, a large (300 kDa), spliceosome-associated protein with prominent intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) that sharply localizes to NS. Analysis of protein length evolution among metazoa revealed a peculiar IDR extension speciﬁcally for SRRM2 and SON in vertebrates, a hallmark of condensate formation. Combining these results, we tested a long-standing question in the study of NS: whether NS are formed around a speciﬁc core, or various SR-proteins self-assemble into a phase-separated compartment without the need for a deﬁned core. Here we show that, the elusive core of NS is formed by SON and SRRM2, since depletion of SON leads only to a partial disassembly of NS, while combined depletion of SON together with SRRM2, but not other NS associated factors, or depletion of SON in a cell line where IDRs of SRRM2 are genetically deleted, leads to a near-complete dissolution of NS. This work, therefore, paves the way to study the role of NS under diverse physiological and stress conditions.

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Nuclear speckles enable processing of RNA from GC-rich isochores

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