State Key Laboratory of Rice Biology, the Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology of Crop Pathogens and Insects, Institute of Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
MOE Key Laboratory of Macromolecular Synthesis and Functionalization, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
Nat Commun. 2021 May 11;12(1):2661. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-22917-3.
Precursor messenger RNA (pre-mRNA) splicing is an essential and tightly regulated process in eukaryotic cells; however, the regulatory mechanisms for the splicing are not well understood. Here, we characterize a RNA binding protein named FgRbp1 in Fusarium graminearum, a fungal pathogen of cereal crops worldwide. Deletion of FgRbp1 leads to reduced splicing efficiency in 47% of the F. graminearum intron-containing gene transcripts that are involved in various cellular processes including vegetative growth, development, and virulence. The human ortholog RBM42 is able to fully rescue the growth defects of ΔFgRbp1. FgRbp1 binds to the motif CAAGR in its target mRNAs, and interacts with the splicing factor FgU2AF23, a highly conserved protein involved in 3' splice site recognition, leading to enhanced recruitment of FgU2AF23 to the target mRNAs. This study demonstrates that FgRbp1 is a splicing regulator and regulates the pre-mRNA splicing in a sequence-dependent manner in F. graminearum.
前体信使 RNA（pre-mRNA）剪接是真核细胞中必不可少且受到严格调控的过程；然而，剪接的调控机制尚不清楚。在这里，我们描述了禾谷镰刀菌（Fusarium graminearum）中一种名为 FgRbp1 的 RNA 结合蛋白，该菌是一种全球谷类作物的真菌病原体。FgRbp1 缺失导致 47%的包含内含子的 F. graminearum 基因转录本的剪接效率降低，这些转录本参与各种细胞过程，包括营养生长、发育和毒力。人类同源物 RBM42 能够完全挽救 ΔFgRbp1 的生长缺陷。FgRbp1 结合其靶 mRNA 中的 motif CAAGR，并与剪接因子 FgU2AF23 相互作用，FgU2AF23 是一种高度保守的蛋白，参与 3' 剪接位点识别，导致 FgU2AF23 更有效地募集到靶 mRNA 上。这项研究表明，FgRbp1 是一种剪接调节剂，以序列依赖性的方式在 F. graminearum 中调节 pre-mRNA 剪接。
