Alternative splicing affects the subcellular localization of Drosha.

The RNase III enzyme Drosha is a key factor in microRNA (miRNA) biogenesis and as such indispensable for cellular homeostasis and developmental processes. Together with its co-factor DGCR8, it converts the primary transcript (pri-miRNA) into the precursor hairpin (pre-miRNA) in the nucleus. While the middle and the C-terminal domain are crucial for pri-miRNA processing and DGCR8 binding, the function of the N-terminus remains cryptic. Different studies have linked this region to the subcellular localization of Drosha, stabilization and response to stress. In this study, we identify alternatively spliced Drosha transcripts that are devoid of a part of the arginine/serine-rich (RS-rich) domain and expressed in a large set of human cells. In contrast to their expected habitation, we find two isoforms also present in the cytoplasm, while the other two isoforms reside exclusively in the nucleus. Their processing activity for pri-miRNAs and the binding to co-factors remains unaltered. In multiple cell lines, the endogenous mRNA expression of the Drosha isoforms correlates with the localization of endogenous Drosha proteins. The pri-miRNA processing efficiency is not significantly different between groups of cells with or without cytoplasmic Drosha expression. In summary, we discovered novel isoforms of Drosha with differential subcellular localization pointing toward additional layers of complexity in the regulation of its activity.

The cancer-associated microprotein CASIMO1 controls cell proliferation and interacts with squalene epoxidase modulating lipid droplet formation.

Breast cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related death in women. Small open reading frame (sORF)-encoded proteins or microproteins constitute a new class of molecules often transcribed from presumed long non-coding RNA transcripts (lncRNAs). The translation of some of these sORFs has been confirmed, but their cellular function and importance remains largely unknown. Here, we report the identification and characterization of a novel microprotein of 10 kDa, which we named Cancer-Associated Small Integral Membrane Open reading frame 1 (CASIMO1). CASIMO1 RNA is overexpressed predominantly in hormone receptor-positive breast tumors. Its knockdown leads to decreased proliferation in multiple breast cancer cell lines. Its loss disturbs the organization of the actin cytoskeleton, leads to inhibition of cell motility, and causes a G0/G1 cell cycle arrest. The proliferation phenotype upon overexpression is observed only with CASIMO1 protein expression, but not with a non-translatable mutant attributing the effects to the sORF-derived protein rather than a lncRNA function. CASIMO1 microprotein interacts with squalene epoxidase (SQLE), a key enzyme in cholesterol synthesis and a known oncogene in breast cancer. Overexpression of CASIMO1 leads to SQLE protein accumulation without affecting its RNA levels and increased lipid droplet clustering, while knockdown of CASIMO1 decreased SQLE protein abundance and ERK phosphorylation downstream of SQLE. Importantly, SQLE knockdown mimicked the CASIMO1 knockdown phenotype and in turn SQLE overexpression fully rescued the effect of CASIMO1 knockdown. These findings establish CASIMO1 as the first functional microprotein that plays a role in carcinogenesis and is implicated in the cell lipid homeostasis.

Rare Drosha splice variants are deficient in microRNA processing but do not affect general microRNA expression in cancer cells.

Drosha is a key enzyme in microRNA biogenesis, generating the precursor miRNA (pre-miRNA) by excising the stem-loop embedded in the primary transcripts (pri-miRNA). The specificity for the pri-miRNAs and determination of the cleavage site are provided by its binding partner DGCR8, which is necessary for efficient processing. The crucial Drosha domains for pri-miRNA cleavage are the middle part, the two enzymatic RNase III domains (RIIID), and the dsRNA binding domain (dsRBD) in the C-terminus. Here, we identify alternatively spliced transcripts in human melanoma and NT2 cell lines, encoding C-terminally truncated Drosha proteins lacking part of the RIIIDb and the entire dsRBD. Proteins generated from these alternative splice variants fail to bind to DGCR8 but still interact with Ewing sarcoma protein (EWS). In vitro as well as in vivo, the Drosha splice variants are deficient in pri-miRNA processing. However, the aberrant transcripts in melanoma cells do not consistently reduce mature miRNA levels compared with melanoma cell lines lacking those splice variants, possibly owing to their limited abundance. Our findings show that alternative processing-deficient Drosha splice variants exist in melanoma cells. In elevated amounts, these alternatively spliced transcripts could provide one potential mechanism accounting for the deregulation of miRNAs in cancer cells. On the basis of our results, the search for alternative inactive splice variants might be fruitful in different tumor entities to unravel the molecular basis of the previously observed decreased microRNA processing efficiency in cancer.

The inner nuclear membrane protein Src1 associates with subtelomeric genes and alters their regulated gene expression.

Inner nuclear membrane proteins containing a LEM (LAP2, emerin, and MAN1) domain participate in different processes, including chromatin organization, gene expression, and nuclear envelope biogenesis. In this study, we identify a robust genetic interaction between transcription export (TREX) factors and yeast Src1, an integral inner nuclear membrane protein that is homologous to vertebrate LEM2. DNA macroarray analysis revealed that the expression of the phosphate-regulated genes PHO11, PHO12, and PHO84 is up-regulated in src1Delta cells. Notably, these PHO genes are located in subtelomeric regions of chromatin and exhibit a perinuclear location in vivo. Src1 spans the nuclear membrane twice and exposes its N and C domains with putative DNA-binding motifs to the nucleoplasm. Genome-wide chromatin immunoprecipitation-on-chip analyses indicated that Src1 is highly enriched at telomeres and subtelomeric regions of the yeast chromosomes. Our data show that the inner nuclear membrane protein Src1 functions at the interface between subtelomeric gene expression and TREX-dependent messenger RNA export through the nuclear pore complexes.