Crossref journal-article
eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
eLife (4374)
Abstract

Eukaryotes have two types of spliceosomes, comprised of either major (U1, U2, U4, U5, U6) or minor (U11, U12, U4atac, U6atac; <1%) snRNPs. The high conservation of minor introns, typically one amidst many major introns in several hundred genes, despite their poor splicing, has been a long-standing enigma. Here, we discovered that the low abundance minor spliceosome’s catalytic snRNP, U6atac, is strikingly unstable (t½<2 hr). We show that U6atac level depends on both RNA polymerases II and III and can be rapidly increased by cell stress-activated kinase p38MAPK, which stabilizes it, enhancing mRNA expression of hundreds of minor intron-containing genes that are otherwise suppressed by limiting U6atac. Furthermore, p38MAPK-dependent U6atac modulation can control minor intron-containing tumor suppressor PTEN expression and cytokine production. We propose that minor introns are embedded molecular switches regulated by U6atac abundance, providing a novel post-transcriptional gene expression mechanism and a rationale for the minor spliceosome’s evolutionary conservation.

Bibliography

Younis, I., Dittmar, K., Wang, W., Foley, S. W., Berg, M. G., Hu, K. Y., Wei, Z., Wan, L., & Dreyfuss, G. (2013). Minor introns are embedded molecular switches regulated by highly unstable U6atac snRNA. ELife, 2. CLOCKSS.

Authors 9 University of Pennsylvania
  1. Ihab Younis (first) University of Pennsylvania
  2. Kimberly Dittmar (additional) University of Pennsylvania
  3. Wei Wang (additional)
  4. Shawn W Foley (additional) University of Pennsylvania
  5. Michael G Berg (additional) University of Pennsylvania
  6. Karen Y Hu (additional) University of Pennsylvania
  7. Zhi Wei (additional)
  8. Lili Wan (additional) University of Pennsylvania
  9. Gideon Dreyfuss (additional) University of Pennsylvania
References 47 Referenced 79
  1. 10.1002/ajmg.a.34299 / Am J Med Genet A / A homozygous mutation in RNU4ATAC as a cause of microcephalic osteodysplastic primordial dwarfism type I (MOPD I) with associated pigmentary disorder by Abdel-Salam (2011)
  2. 10.1038/ng.556 / Nat Genet / Subtle variations in Pten dose determine cancer susceptibility by Alimonti (2010)
  3. 10.1093/nar/gkl796 / Nucleic Acids Res / U12DB: a database of orthologous U12-type spliceosomal introns by Alioto (2007)
  4. 10.1186/1471-2164-11-106 / BMC Genomics / U12 type introns were lost at multiple occasions during evolution by Bartschat (2010)
  5. 10.1186/1745-6150-3-19 / Biol Direct / U12 intron positions are more strongly conserved between animals and plants than U2 intron positions by Basu (2008)
  6. 10.1016/j.cell.2012.05.029 / Cell / U1 snRNP determines mRNA length and regulates isoform expression by Berg (2012)
  7. 10.1016/S0161-5890(02)00262-6 / Mol Immunol / Ribotoxic stress activates p38 and JNK kinases and modulates the antigen-presenting activity of dendritic cells by Bunyard (2003)
  8. 10.1016/S1097-2765(00)80292-0 / Mol Cell / Evolutionary fates and origins of U12-type introns by Burge (1998)
  9. 10.1111/j.1365-2567.2006.02347.x / Immunology / Dependence on p38 MAPK signalling in the up-regulation of TLR2, TLR4 and TLR9 gene expression in Trichomonas vaginalis-treated HeLa cells by Chang (2006)
  10. 10.1042/0264-6021:3510095 / Biochem J / Specificity and mechanism of action of some commonly used protein kinase inhibitors by Davies (2000)
  11. 10.1016/S0076-6879(06)11002-2 / Methods Enzymol / Analyzing micro-RNA expression using microarrays by Davison (2006)
  12. 10.1261/rna.1136108 / RNA / High-resolution gene expression profiling for simultaneous kinetic parameter analysis of RNA synthesis and decay by Dolken (2008)
  13. 10.1126/science.1202205 / Science / Association of TALS developmental disorder with defect in minor splicing component U4atac snRNA by Edery (2011)
  14. 10.1093/cvr/cvp425 / Cardiovasc Res / Inactivation of the tumour suppressor, PTEN, in smooth muscle promotes a pro-inflammatory phenotype and enhances neointima formation by Furgeson (2010)
  15. 10.4049/jimmunol.176.9.5167 / J Immunol / Cutting Edge: Lentiviral short hairpin RNA silencing of PTEN in human mast cells reveals constitutive signals that promote cytokine secretion and cell survival by Furumoto (2006)
  16. 10.1006/excr.1996.0311 / Exp Cell Res / U6 snRNA maturation and stability by Fury (1996)
  17. 10.1126/science.271.5256.1716 / Science / Requirement of U12 snRNA for in vivo splicing of a minor class of eukaryotic nuclear pre-mRNA introns by Hall (1996)
  18. 10.1126/science.1200587 / Science / Mutations in U4atac snRNA, a component of the minor spliceosome, in the developmental disorder MOPD I by He (2011)
  19. 10.1038/sj.emboj.7600212 / EMBO J / Structural basis for the selective inhibition of JNK1 by the scaffolding protein JIP1 and SP600125 by Heo (2004)
  20. 10.1093/nar/gni002 / Nucleic Acids Res / Detection and discovery of RNA modifications using microarrays by Hiley (2005)
  21. 10.1038/nature09479 / Nature / U1 snRNP protects pre-mRNAs from premature cleavage and polyadenylation by Kaida (2010)
  22. 10.1038/nmeth.1528 / Nat Methods / Analysis and design of RNA sequencing experiments for identifying isoform regulation by Katz (2010)
  23. 10.1083/jcb.152.1.157 / J Cell Biol / The Telomerase/vault-associated protein TEP1 is required for vault RNA stability and its association with the vault particle by Kickhoefer (2001)
  24. 10.1016/j.cell.2007.09.043 / Cell / Splicing segregation: the minor spliceosome acts outside the nucleus and controls cell proliferation by Konig (2007)
  25. 10.1371/journal.pgen.0030212 / PLOS Genet / Extragenic accumulation of RNA polymerase II enhances transcription by RNA polymerase III by Listerman (2007)
  26. 10.1038/nmeth.1226 / Nat Methods / Mapping and quantifying mammalian transcriptomes by RNA-Seq by Mortazavi (2008)
  27. 10.1016/S1097-2765(02)00441-0 / Mol Cell / The divergent U12-type spliceosome is required for pre-mRNA splicing and is essential for development in Drosophila by Otake (2002)
  28. 10.1093/emboj/cdf297 / EMBO J / The splicing of U12-type introns can be a rate-limiting step in gene expression by Patel (2002)
  29. 10.1038/nrm1259 / Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol / Splicing double: insights from the second spliceosome by Patel (2003)
  30. 10.1152/ajpheart.00929.2011 / Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol / Regulation of phosphatase and tensin homolog on chromosome 10 in response to hypoxia by Qian (2012)
  31. 10.1093/bioinformatics/btq033 / Bioinformatics / BEDTools: a flexible suite of utilities for comparing genomic features by Quinlan (2010)
  32. 10.1038/nature05228 / Nature / An early evolutionary origin for the minor spliceosome by Russell (2006)
  33. 10.1128/MCB.24.5.1855-1869.2004 / Mol Cell Biol / An intronic enhancer regulates splicing of the twintron of Drosophila melanogaster prospero pre-mRNA by two different spliceosomes by Scamborova (2004)
  34. 10.1074/jbc.M511105200 / J Biol Chem / Up-regulation of PTEN (phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome ten) mediates p38 MAPK stress signal-induced inhibition of insulin signaling. A cross-talk between stress signaling and insulin signaling in resistin-treated human endothelial cells by Shen (2006)
  35. 10.1093/nar/gkl556 / Nucleic Acids Res / Comprehensive splice-site analysis using comparative genomics by Sheth (2006)
  36. 10.1017/S1355838299982213 / RNA / Conservation of functional features of U6atac and U12 snRNAs between vertebrates and higher plants by Shukla (1999)
  37. 10.1038/nsmb.1666 / Nat Struct Mol Biol / Rates of in situ transcription and splicing in large human genes by Singh (2009)
  38. 10.1242/jcs.015230 / J Cell Sci / New insights into PTEN by Tamguney (2007)
  39. 10.1016/S0092-8674(00)81057-0 / Cell / A novel spliceosome containing U11, U12, and U5 snRNPs excises a minor class (AT-AC) intron in vitro by Tarn (1996)
  40. 10.1093/bioinformatics/btp120 / Bioinformatics / TopHat: discovering splice junctions with RNA-Seq by Trapnell (2009)
  41. 10.1038/nprot.2012.016 / Nat Protoc / Differential gene and transcript expression analysis of RNA-seq experiments with TopHat and Cufflinks by Trapnell (2012)
  42. 10.1038/nbt.1621 / Nat Biotechnol / Transcript assembly and quantification by RNA-Seq reveals unannotated transcripts and isoform switching during cell differentiation by Trapnell (2010)
  43. 10.1002/wrna.1141 / Wiley Interdiscip Rev RNA / The significant other: splicing by the minor spliceosome by Turunen (2012)
  44. 10.1016/j.cell.2009.02.009 / Cell / The spliceosome: design principles of a dynamic RNP machine by Wahl (2009)
  45. 10.1016/j.molcel.2010.03.014 / Mol Cell / Gemin5 delivers snRNA precursors to the SMN complex for snRNP biogenesis by Yong (2010)
  46. 10.1128/MCB.01301-09 / Mol Cell Biol / Rapid-response splicing reporter screens identify differential regulators of constitutive and alternative splicing by Younis (2010)
  47. 10.1016/j.cell.2008.03.031 / Cell / SMN deficiency causes tissue-specific perturbations in the repertoire of snRNAs and widespread defects in splicing by Zhang (2008)
Dates
Type When
Created 12 years ago (July 30, 2013, 2:12 p.m.)
Deposited 1 year, 10 months ago (Oct. 11, 2023, 8:40 p.m.)
Indexed 1 week, 2 days ago (Aug. 19, 2025, 6:04 a.m.)
Issued 12 years ago (July 30, 2013)
Published 12 years ago (July 30, 2013)
Published Online 12 years ago (July 30, 2013)
Funders 4
  1. Howard Hughes Medical Institute 10.13039/100000011

    Region: Americas

    pri (Research institutes and centers)

    Labels2
    1. Howard Hughes Medical Institute Inc
    2. HHMI
  2. Association Française Contre les Myopathies
  3. Howard Hughes Medical Institute 10.13039/100000011

    Region: Americas

    pri (Research institutes and centers)

    Labels2
    1. Howard Hughes Medical Institute Inc
    2. HHMI
  4. Association Française Contre les Myopathies

@article{Younis_2013, title={Minor introns are embedded molecular switches regulated by highly unstable U6atac snRNA}, volume={2}, ISSN={2050-084X}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/elife.00780}, DOI={10.7554/elife.00780}, journal={eLife}, publisher={eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd}, author={Younis, Ihab and Dittmar, Kimberly and Wang, Wei and Foley, Shawn W and Berg, Michael G and Hu, Karen Y and Wei, Zhi and Wan, Lili and Dreyfuss, Gideon}, year={2013}, month=jul }