The Fission Yeast Pre-mRNA-processing Factor 18 (prp18+) Has Intron-specific Splicing Functions with Links to G1-S Cell Cycle Progression

Cryptococcus neoformans Slu7 ensures nuclear positioning during mitotic progression through RNA splicing

The position of the nucleus before it divides during mitosis is variable in different budding yeasts. Studies in the pathogenic intron-rich fungus Cryptococcus neoformans reveal that the nucleus moves entirely into the daughter bud before its division. Here, we report functions of a zinc finger motif containing spliceosome protein C. neoformans Slu7 (CnSlu7) in cell cycle progression. The budding yeast and fission yeast homologs of Slu7 have predominant roles for intron 3' splice site definition during pre-mRNA splicing. Using a conditional knockdown strategy, we show CnSlu7 is an essential factor for viability and is required for efficient cell cycle progression with major role during mitosis. Aberrant nuclear migration, including improper positioning of the nucleus as well as the spindle, were frequently observed in cells depleted of CnSlu7. However, cell cycle delays observed due to Slu7 depletion did not activate the Mad2-dependent spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC). Mining of the global transcriptome changes in the Slu7 knockdown strain identified downregulation of transcripts encoding several cell cycle regulators and cytoskeletal factors for nuclear migration, and the splicing of specific introns of these genes was CnSlu7 dependent. To test the importance of splicing activity of CnSlu7 on nuclear migration, we complemented Slu7 knockdown cells with an intron less PAC1 minigene and demonstrated that the nuclear migration defects were significantly rescued. These findings show that CnSlu7 regulates the functions of diverse cell cycle regulators and cytoskeletal components, ensuring timely cell cycle transitions and nuclear division during mitosis.

Splicing of branchpoint-distant exons is promoted by Cactin, Tls1 and the ubiquitin-fold-activated Sde2

Intron diversity facilitates regulated gene expression and alternative splicing. Spliceosomes excise introns after recognizing their splicing signals: the 5'-splice site (5'ss), branchpoint (BP) and 3'-splice site (3'ss). The latter two signals are recognized by U2 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein (snRNP) and its accessory factors (U2AFs), but longer spacings between them result in weaker splicing. Here, we show that excision of introns with a BP-distant 3'ss (e.g. rap1 intron 2) requires the ubiquitin-fold-activated splicing regulator Sde2 in Schizosaccharomyces pombe. By monitoring splicing-specific ura4 reporters in a collection of S. pombe mutants, Cay1 and Tls1 were identified as additional regulators of this process. The role of Sde2, Cay1 and Tls1 was further confirmed by increasing BP-3'ss spacings in a canonical tho5 intron. We also examined BP-distant exons spliced independently of these factors and observed that RNA secondary structures possibly bridged the gap between the two signals. These proteins may guide the 3'ss towards the spliceosome's catalytic centre by folding the RNA between the BP and 3'ss. Orthologues of Sde2, Cay1 and Tls1, although missing in the intron-poor Saccharomyces cerevisiae, are present in intron-rich eukaryotes, including humans. This type of intron-specific pre-mRNA splicing appears to have evolved for regulated gene expression and alternative splicing of key heterochromatin factors.

The Arabidopsis cyclophilin CYP18-1 facilitates PRP18 dephosphorylation and the splicing of introns retained under heat stress

In plants, heat stress induces changes in alternative splicing, including intron retention; these events can rapidly alter proteins or downregulate protein activity, producing nonfunctional isoforms or inducing nonsense-mediated decay of messenger RNA (mRNA). Nuclear cyclophilins (CYPs) are accessory proteins in the spliceosome complexes of multicellular eukaryotes. However, whether plant CYPs are involved in pre-mRNA splicing remain unknown. Here, we found that Arabidopsis thaliana CYP18-1 is necessary for the efficient removal of introns that are retained in response to heat stress during germination. CYP18-1 interacts with Step II splicing factors (PRP18a, PRP22, and SWELLMAP1) and associates with the U2 and U5 small nuclear RNAs in response to heat stress. CYP18-1 binds to phospho-PRP18a, and increasing concentrations of CYP18-1 are associated with increasing dephosphorylation of PRP18a. Furthermore, interaction and protoplast transfection assays revealed that CYP18-1 and the PP2A-type phosphatase PP2A B'η co-regulate PRP18a dephosphorylation. RNA-seq and RT-qPCR analysis confirmed that CYP18-1 is essential for splicing introns that are retained under heat stress. Overall, we reveal the mechanism of action by which CYP18-1 activates the dephosphorylation of PRP18 and show that CYP18-1 is crucial for the efficient splicing of retained introns and rapid responses to heat stress in plants.

Early splicing functions of fission yeast Prp16 and its unexpected requirement for gene Silencing is governed by intronic features

Prp16 is a DEAH box pre-mRNA splicing factor that triggers a key spliceosome conformational switch to facilitate second step splicing in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. However, Prp16 functions are largely unexplored in Schizosaccharomyces pombe, an attractive model with exon-intron architecture more relevant to several other eukaryotes. Here, we generated mis-sense alleles in SpPrp16 whose consequences on genome-wide splicing uncover its nearly global splicing role with only a small subset of unaffected introns. Prp16 dependent and independent intron categories displayed a striking difference in the strength of intronic 5' splice site (5'SS)-U6 snRNA and branch site (BS)-U2 snRNA interactions. Selective weakening of these interactions could convert a Prp16 dependent intron into an independent one. These results point to the role of SpPrp16 in destabilizing 5'SS-U6snRNA and BS-U2snRNA interactions which plausibly trigger structural alterations in the spliceosome to facilitate first step catalysis. Our data suggest that SpPrp16 interactions with early acting factors, its enzymatic activities and association with intronic elements collectively account for efficient and accurate first step catalysis. In addition to splicing derangements in the spprp16F528S mutant, we show that SpPrp16 influences cell cycle progression and centromeric heterochromatinization. We propose that strong 5'SS-U6 snRNA and BS-U2 snRNA complementarity of intron-like elements in non-coding RNAs which lead to complete splicing arrest and impaired Seb1 functions at the pericentromeric loci may cumulatively account for the heterochromatin defects in spprp16F528S cells. These findings suggest that the diverse Prp16 functions within a genome are likely governed by its intronic features that influence splice site-snRNA interaction strength.

A human postcatalytic spliceosome structure reveals essential roles of metazoan factors for exon ligation

During exon ligation, the Saccharomyces cerevisiae spliceosome recognizes the 3'-splice site (3'SS) of precursor messenger RNA (pre-mRNA) through non-Watson-Crick pairing with the 5'SS and the branch adenosine, in a conformation stabilized by Prp18 and Prp8. Here we present the 3.3-angstrom cryo-electron microscopy structure of a human postcatalytic spliceosome just after exon ligation. The 3'SS docks at the active site through conserved RNA interactions in the absence of Prp18. Unexpectedly, the metazoan-specific FAM32A directly bridges the 5'-exon and intron 3'SS of pre-mRNA and promotes exon ligation, as shown by functional assays. CACTIN, SDE2, and NKAP-factors implicated in alternative splicing-further stabilize the catalytic conformation of the spliceosome during exon ligation. Together these four proteins act as exon ligation factors. Our study reveals how the human spliceosome has co-opted additional proteins to modulate a conserved RNA-based mechanism for 3'SS selection and to potentially fine-tune alternative splicing at the exon ligation stage.

Intron specificity in pre-mRNA splicing

The occurrence of spliceosomal introns in eukaryotic genomes is highly diverse and ranges from few introns in an organism to multiple introns per gene. Introns vary with respect to their lengths, strengths of splicing signals, and position in resident genes. Higher intronic density and diversity in genetically complex organisms relies on increased efficiency and accuracy of spliceosomes for pre-mRNA splicing. Since intron diversity is critical for functions in RNA stability, regulation of gene expression and alternative splicing, RNA-binding proteins, spliceosomal regulatory factors and post-translational modifications of splicing factors ought to make the splicing process intron-specific. We recently reported function and regulation of a ubiquitin fold harboring splicing regulator, Sde2, which following activation by ubiquitin-specific proteases facilitates excision of selected introns from a subset of multi-intronic genes in Schizosaccharomyces pombe (Thakran et al. EMBO J, https://doi.org/10.15252/embj.201796751 , 2017). By reviewing our findings with understandings of intron functions and regulated splicing processes, we propose possible functions and mechanism of intron-specific pre-mRNA splicing and suggest that this process is crucial to highlight importance of introns in eukaryotic genomes.

Functions for fission yeast splicing factors SpSlu7 and SpPrp18 in alternative splice-site choice and stress-specific regulated splicing

Budding yeast spliceosomal factors ScSlu7 and ScPrp18 interact and mediate intron 3'ss choice during second step pre-mRNA splicing. The fission yeast genome with abundant multi-intronic transcripts, degenerate splice signals and SR proteins is an apt unicellular fungal model to deduce roles for core spliceosomal factors in alternative splice-site choice, intron retention and to study the cellular implications of regulated splicing. From our custom microarray data we deduce a stringent reproducible subset of S. pombe alternative events. We examined the role of factors SpSlu7 or SpPrp18 for these splice events and investigated the relationship to growth phase and stress. Wild-type log and stationary phase cells showed ats1+ exon 3 skipped and intron 3 retained transcripts. Interestingly the non-consensus 5'ss in ats1+ intron 3 caused SpSlu7 and SpPrp18 dependent intron retention. We validated the use of an alternative 5'ss in dtd1+ intron 1 and of an upstream alternative 3'ss in DUF3074 intron 1. The dtd1+ intron 1 non-canonical 5'ss yielded an alternative mRNA whose levels increased in stationary phase. Utilization of dtd1+ intron 1 sub-optimal 5' ss required functional SpPrp18 and SpSlu7 while compromise in SpSlu7 function alone hampered the selection of the DUF3074 intron 1 non canonical 3'ss. We analysed the relative abundance of these splice isoforms during mild thermal, oxidative and heavy metal stress and found stress-specific splice patterns for ats1+ and DUF3074 intron 1 some of which were SpSlu7 and SpPrp18 dependent. By studying ats1+ splice isoforms during compromised transcription elongation rates in wild-type, spslu7-2 and spprp18-5 mutant cells we found dynamic and intron context-specific effects in splice-site choice. Our work thus shows the combinatorial effects of splice site strength, core splicing factor functions and transcription elongation kinetics to dictate alternative splice patterns which in turn serve as an additional recourse of gene regulation in fission yeast.

Sde2 is an intron-specific pre-mRNA splicing regulator activated by ubiquitin-like processing

The expression of intron-containing genes in eukaryotes requires generation of protein-coding messenger RNAs (mRNAs) via RNA splicing, whereby the spliceosome removes non-coding introns from pre-mRNAs and joins exons. Spliceosomes must ensure accurate removal of highly diverse introns. We show that Sde2 is a ubiquitin-fold-containing splicing regulator that supports splicing of selected pre-mRNAs in an intron-specific manner in Schizosaccharomyces pombe Both fission yeast and human Sde2 are translated as inactive precursor proteins harbouring the ubiquitin-fold domain linked through an invariant GGKGG motif to a C-terminal domain (referred to as Sde2-C). Precursor processing after the first di-glycine motif by the ubiquitin-specific proteases Ubp5 and Ubp15 generates a short-lived activated Sde2-C fragment with an N-terminal lysine residue, which subsequently gets incorporated into spliceosomes. Absence of Sde2 or defects in Sde2 activation both result in inefficient excision of selected introns from a subset of pre-mRNAs. Sde2 facilitates spliceosomal association of Cactin/Cay1, with a functional link between Sde2 and Cactin further supported by genetic interactions and pre-mRNA splicing assays. These findings suggest that ubiquitin-like processing of Sde2 into a short-lived activated form may function as a checkpoint to ensure proper splicing of certain pre-mRNAs in fission yeast.