Targeted pseudouridylation: An approach for suppressing nonsense mutations in disease genes.

Nonsense mutations create premature termination codons (PTCs), activating the nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) pathway to degrade most PTC-containing mRNAs. The undegraded mRNA is translated, but translation terminates at the PTC, leading to no production of the full-length protein. This work presents targeted PTC pseudouridylation, an approach for nonsense suppression in human cells. Specifically, an artificial box H/ACA guide RNA designed to target the mRNA PTC can suppress both NMD and premature translation termination in various sequence contexts. Targeted pseudouridylation exhibits a level of suppression comparable with that of aminoglycoside antibiotic treatments. When targeted pseudouridylation is combined with antibiotic treatment, a much higher level of suppression is observed. Transfection of a disease model cell line (carrying a chromosomal PTC) with a designer guide RNA gene targeting the PTC also leads to nonsense suppression. Thus, targeted pseudouridylation is an RNA-directed gene-specific approach that suppresses NMD and concurrently promotes PTC readthrough.

Putting a finger on histidine methylation.

Specialized enzymes add methyl groups to the nitrogens of the amino acid histidine, altering the chemical properties of its imidazole ring and, in turn, the function of the modified (poly)peptide. In this issue of Genes & Development, Shimazu and colleagues (pp. 724-742) make the remarkable discovery that CARNMT1 acts as a dual-specificity histidine methyltransferase, modifying both the small-molecule dipeptide carnosine and a set of proteins, predominantly within RNA-binding C3H zinc finger (C3H ZF) motifs. As a result, CARNMT1 modulates the activity of its protein targets to affect RNA processing and metabolism, ultimately contributing an essential function during mammalian development.

CDK12 regulates DNA repair genes by suppressing intronic polyadenylation.

Mutations that attenuate homologous recombination (HR)-mediated repair promote tumorigenesis and sensitize cells to chemotherapeutics that cause replication fork collapse, a phenotype known as 'BRCAness'1. BRCAness tumours arise from loss-of-function mutations in 22 genes1. Of these genes, all but one (CDK12) function directly in the HR repair pathway1. CDK12 phosphorylates serine 2 of the RNA polymerase II C-terminal domain heptapeptide repeat2-7, a modification that regulates transcription elongation, splicing, and cleavage and polyadenylation8,9. Genome-wide expression studies suggest that depletion of CDK12 abrogates the expression of several HR genes relatively specifically, thereby blunting HR repair3-7,10,11. This observation suggests that the mutational status of CDK12 may predict sensitivity to targeted treatments against BRCAness, such as PARP1 inhibitors, and that CDK12 inhibitors may induce sensitization of HR-competent tumours to these treatments6,7,10,11. Despite growing clinical interest, the mechanism by which CDK12 regulates HR genes remains unknown. Here we show that CDK12 globally suppresses intronic polyadenylation events in mouse embryonic stem cells, enabling the production of full-length gene products. Many HR genes harbour more intronic polyadenylation sites than other expressed genes, and these sites are particularly sensitive to loss of CDK12. The cumulative effect of these sites accounts for the enhanced sensitivity of HR gene expression to CDK12 loss, and we find that this mechanism is conserved in human tumours that contain loss-of-function CDK12 mutations. This work clarifies the function of CDK12 and underscores its potential both as a chemotherapeutic target and as a tumour biomarker.

A UHM-ULM interface with unusual structural features contributes to U2AF2 and SF3B1 association for pre-mRNA splicing.

During spliceosome assembly, the 3' splice site is recognized by sequential U2AF2 complexes, first with Splicing Factor 1 (SF1) and second by the SF3B1 subunit of the U2 small nuclear ribonuclear protein particle. The U2AF2-SF1 interface is well characterized, comprising a U2AF homology motif (UHM) of U2AF2 bound to a U2AF ligand motif (ULM) of SF1. However, the structure of the U2AF2-SF3B1 interface and its importance for pre-mRNA splicing are unknown. To address this knowledge gap, we determined the crystal structure of the U2AF2 UHM bound to a SF3B1 ULM site at 1.8-Å resolution. We discovered a distinctive trajectory of the SF3B1 ULM across the U2AF2 UHM surface, which differs from prior UHM/ULM structures and is expected to modulate the orientations of the full-length proteins. We established that the binding affinity of the U2AF2 UHM for the cocrystallized SF3B1 ULM rivals that of a nearly full-length U2AF2 protein for an N-terminal SF3B1 region. An additional SF3B6 subunit had no detectable effect on the U2AF2-SF3B1 binding affinities. We further showed that key residues at the U2AF2 UHM-SF3B1 ULM interface contribute to coimmunoprecipitation of the splicing factors. Moreover, disrupting the U2AF2-SF3B1 interface changed splicing of representative human transcripts. From analysis of genome-wide data, we found that many of the splice sites coregulated by U2AF2 and SF3B1 differ from those coregulated by U2AF2 and SF1. Taken together, these findings support distinct structural and functional roles for the U2AF2-SF1 and U2AF2-SF3B1 complexes during the pre-mRNA splicing process.

Detained introns are a novel, widespread class of post-transcriptionally spliced introns.

Deep sequencing of embryonic stem cell RNA revealed many specific internal introns that are significantly more abundant than the other introns within polyadenylated transcripts; we classified these as "detained" introns (DIs). We identified thousands of DIs, many of which are evolutionarily conserved, in human and mouse cell lines as well as the adult mouse liver. DIs can have half-lives of over an hour yet remain in the nucleus and are not subject to nonsense-mediated decay (NMD). Drug inhibition of Clk, a stress-responsive kinase, triggered rapid splicing changes for a specific subset of DIs; half showed increased splicing, and half showed increased intron detention, altering transcript pools of >300 genes. Srsf4, which undergoes a dramatic phosphorylation shift in response to Clk kinase inhibition, regulates the splicing of some DIs, particularly in genes encoding RNA processing and splicing factors. The splicing of some DIs-including those in Mdm4, a negative regulator of p53-was also altered following DNA damage. After 4 h of Clk inhibition, the expression of >400 genes changed significantly, and almost one-third of these are p53 transcriptional targets. These data suggest a widespread mechanism by which the rate of splicing of DIs contributes to the level of gene expression.

O-GlcNAc regulates gene expression by controlling detained intron splicing.

Intron detention in precursor RNAs serves to regulate expression of a substantial fraction of genes in eukaryotic genomes. How detained intron (DI) splicing is controlled is poorly understood. Here, we show that a ubiquitous post-translational modification called O-GlcNAc, which is thought to integrate signaling pathways as nutrient conditions fluctuate, controls detained intron splicing. Using specific inhibitors of the enzyme that installs O-GlcNAc (O-GlcNAc transferase, or OGT) and the enzyme that removes O-GlcNAc (O-GlcNAcase, or OGA), we first show that O-GlcNAc regulates splicing of the highly conserved detained introns in OGT and OGA to control mRNA abundance in order to buffer O-GlcNAc changes. We show that OGT and OGA represent two distinct paradigms for how DI splicing can control gene expression. We also show that when DI splicing of the O-GlcNAc-cycling genes fails to restore O-GlcNAc homeostasis, there is a global change in detained intron levels. Strikingly, almost all detained introns are spliced more efficiently when O-GlcNAc levels are low, yet other alternative splicing pathways change minimally. Our results demonstrate that O-GlcNAc controls detained intron splicing to tune system-wide gene expression, providing a means to couple nutrient conditions to the cell's transcriptional regime.

Rbfox2 controls autoregulation in RNA-binding protein networks.

The tight regulation of splicing networks is critical for organismal development. To maintain robust splicing patterns, many splicing factors autoregulate their expression through alternative splicing-coupled nonsense-mediated decay (AS-NMD). However, as negative autoregulation results in a self-limiting window of splicing factor expression, it is unknown how variations in steady-state protein levels can arise in different physiological contexts. Here, we demonstrate that Rbfox2 cross-regulates AS-NMD events within RNA-binding proteins to alter their expression. Using individual nucleotide-resolution cross-linking immunoprecipitation coupled to high-throughput sequencing (iCLIP) and mRNA sequencing, we identified >200 AS-NMD splicing events that are bound by Rbfox2 in mouse embryonic stem cells. These "silent" events are characterized by minimal apparent splicing changes but appreciable changes in gene expression upon Rbfox2 knockdown due to degradation of the NMD-inducing isoform. Nearly 70 of these AS-NMD events fall within genes encoding RNA-binding proteins, many of which are autoregulated. As with the coding splicing events that we found to be regulated by Rbfox2, silent splicing events are evolutionarily conserved and frequently contain the Rbfox2 consensus UGCAUG. Our findings uncover an unexpectedly broad and multilayer regulatory network controlled by Rbfox2 and offer an explanation for how autoregulatory splicing networks are tuned.

Structure-Based Evolution of Low Nanomolar O-GlcNAc Transferase Inhibitors.

Reversible glycosylation of nuclear and cytoplasmic proteins is an important regulatory mechanism across metazoans. One enzyme, O-linked N-acetylglucosamine transferase (OGT), is responsible for all nucleocytoplasmic glycosylation and there is a well-known need for potent, cell-permeable inhibitors to interrogate OGT function. Here we report the structure-based evolution of OGT inhibitors culminating in compounds with low nanomolar inhibitory potency and on-target cellular activity. In addition to disclosing useful OGT inhibitors, the structures we report provide insight into how to inhibit glycosyltransferases, a family of enzymes that has been notoriously refractory to inhibitor development.

Updated Pseudo-seq Protocol for Transcriptome-Wide Detection of Pseudouridines.

Pseudouridine (Ψ), the most prevalent modified base in cellular RNAs, has been mapped to numerous sites not only in rRNAs, tRNAs, and snRNAs but also mRNAs. Although there have been multiple techniques to identify Ψs, due to the recent development of sequencing technologies some reagents are not compatible with the current sequencer. Here, we show the updated Pseudo-seq, a technique enabling the genome-wide identification of pseudouridylation sites with single-nucleotide precision. We provide a comprehensive description of Pseudo-seq, covering protocols for RNA isolation from human cells, library preparation, and detailed data analysis procedures. The methodology presented is easily adaptable to any cell or tissue type with high-quality mRNA isolation. It can be used for discovering novel pseudouridylation sites, thus constituting a crucial initial step toward understanding the regulation and function of this modification. Key features • Identification of Ψ sites on mRNAs. • Updated Pseudo-seq provides precise positional and quantitative information of Ψ. • Uses a more efficient library preparation with the latest, currently available materials.

KDM3A and KDM3B Maintain Naïve Pluripotency Through the Regulation of Alternative Splicing.

Histone modifying enzymes play a central role in maintaining cell identity by establishing a conducive chromatin environment for lineage specific transcription factor activity. Pluripotent embryonic stem cell (ESC) identity is characterized by a lower abundance of gene repression associated histone modifications that enables rapid response to differentiation cues. The KDM3 family of histone demethylases removes the repressive histone H3 lysine 9 dimethylation (H3K9me2). Here we uncover a surprising role for the KDM3 proteins in the maintenance of the pluripotent state through post-transcriptional regulation. We find that KDM3A and KDM3B interact with RNA processing factors such as EFTUD2 and PRMT5. Acute selective degradation of the endogenous KDM3A and KDM3B proteins resulted in altered splicing independent of H3K9me2 status or catalytic activity. These splicing changes partially resemble the splicing pattern of the more blastocyst-like ground state of pluripotency and occurred in important chromatin and transcription factors such as Dnmt3b, Tbx3 and Tcf12. Our findings reveal non-canonical roles of histone demethylating enzymes in splicing to regulate cell identity.