Muscle Biology Laboratory, Department of Animal Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
Nucleic Acids Res. 2013 Feb 1;41(4):2659-72. doi: 10.1093/nar/gks1362. Epub 2013 Jan 9.
Titin, a sarcomeric protein expressed primarily in striated muscles, is responsible for maintaining the structure and biomechanical properties of muscle cells. Cardiac titin undergoes developmental size reduction from 3.7 megadaltons in neonates to primarily 2.97 megadaltons in the adult. This size reduction results from gradually increased exon skipping between exons 50 and 219 of titin mRNA. Our previous study reported that Rbm20 is the splicing factor responsible for this process. In this work, we investigated its molecular mechanism. We demonstrate that Rbm20 mediates exon skipping by binding to titin pre-mRNA to repress the splicing of some regions; the exons/introns in these Rbm20-repressed regions are ultimately skipped. Rbm20 was also found to mediate intron retention and exon shuffling. The two Rbm20 speckles found in nuclei from muscle tissues were identified as aggregates of Rbm20 protein on the partially processed titin pre-mRNAs. Cooperative repression and alternative 3' splice site selection were found to be used by Rbm20 to skip different subsets of titin exons, and the splicing pathway selected depended on the ratio of Rbm20 to other splicing factors that vary with tissue type and developmental age.
肌联蛋白(Titin)是一种主要在横纹肌中表达的肌节蛋白,负责维持肌细胞的结构和生物力学特性。心肌联蛋白在发育过程中会发生大小减小,从新生儿的 3.7 兆道尔顿减少到成人的主要 2.97 兆道尔顿。这种大小减小是由于肌联蛋白 mRNA 50 号和 219 号外显子之间逐渐增加的外显子跳跃所致。我们之前的研究报告称,Rbm20 是负责这一过程的剪接因子。在这项工作中,我们研究了它的分子机制。我们证明,Rbm20 通过与肌联蛋白前体 mRNA 结合来介导外显子跳跃,从而抑制某些区域的剪接;这些 Rbm20 抑制区域的外显子/内含子最终被跳过。Rbm20 还介导内含子保留和外显子改组。在来自肌肉组织的核中发现的两个 Rbm20 斑点被鉴定为部分加工的肌联蛋白前体 mRNA 上的 Rbm20 蛋白聚集体。发现 Rbm20 协同抑制和替代 3' 剪接位点选择来跳过肌联蛋白不同的外显子子集,所选的剪接途径取决于 Rbm20 与其他剪接因子的比例,这些比例随组织类型和发育年龄而异。