Moisan GJ, Kamath N, Apgar S, Schwehr M, Vedmurthy P, Conner O, Hayes K, Toro CP. Alternative Splicing and Nonsense-Mediated Decay of a Zebrafish GABA Receptor Subunit Transcript.
Zebrafish 2024;
21:198-205. [PMID:
37751193 DOI:
10.1089/zeb.2023.0044]
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Abstract
The superfamily of Cys-loop ionotropic neurotransmitter receptors includes those that detect GABA, glutamate, glycine, and acetylcholine. There is ample evidence that many Cys-loop receptor subunit genes include alternatively spliced exons. In this study, we report a novel example of alternative splicing (AS): we show that the 68-bp exon 3 in the zebrafish gabrr2b gene-which codes for the ρ2b GABAAR subunit-is an alternative cassette exon. Skipping of gabrr2b exon 3 results in a downstream frame shift and a premature termination codon (PTC). We provide evidence in larval zebrafish that transcripts containing the PTC are subject to degradation through nonsense-mediated decay. We also compile reports of AS of homologous exons in other Cys-loop receptor genes in multiple species. Our data add to a large body of research demonstrating that exon 3 in Cys-loop receptor genes is a conserved site for AS, the effects of which can vary from novel splice-isoform generation to downregulation of gene expression through transcript degradation.
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