Localization of an Exonic Splicing Enhancer Responsible For
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3108–3115 Nucleic Acids Research, 2001, Vol. 29, No. 14 © 2001 Oxford University Press Localization of an exonic splicing enhancer responsible for mammalian natural trans-splicing Concha Caudevilla, Carles Codony1, Dolors Serra, Guillem Plasencia, Ruth Román, Adolf Graessmann2, Guillermina Asins, Montserrat Bach-Elias1 and Fausto G. Hegardt* Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of Pharmacy, Diagonal 643, University of Barcelona, 08028 Barcelona, Spain, 1IIBB Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 08034 Barcelona, Spain and 2Institut für Molekularbiologie, Freie Universität Berlin, D-14195 Berlin, Germany Received February 15, 2001; Revised and Accepted June 1, 2001 DDBJ/EMBL/GenBank accession nos AF144397–AF144399 ABSTRACT recognize exon–intron boundaries at both 5′ and 3′ splice sites and then produce the necessary reactions to ligate the exons Carnitine octanoyltransferase (COT) produces three involved. Two kinds of splicing are observed in nature. different transcripts in rat through cis-andtrans- Cis-splicing, by which introns from the same pre-mRNA are splicing reactions, which may lead to the synthesis removed, and trans-splicing, in which two pre-mRNAs are of two proteins. Generation of the three COT tran- processed to produce a mature transcript that contains exons scripts in rat does not depend on sex, development, from both precursors. The trans-splicing process has been fat feeding, the inclusion of the peroxisome prolifer- described mostly in trypanosome, nematodes, plant/algal ator diethylhexyl phthalate in the diet or hyper- chloroplasts and plant mitochondria (1). insulinemia. In addition, trans-splicing was not A family of serine–arginine-rich RNA binding proteins, detected in COT of other mammals, such as human, known as SR proteins, plays a critical role in the formation of pig, cow and mouse, or in Cos7 cells from monkey. active spliceosomes. The SR proteins recognize exonic Rat COT exon 2 contains two purine-rich sequences. splicing enhancers (ESEs) promoting both constitutive and Mutation of the rat COT exon 2 upstream box does regulated splicing by bringing the flanking splice sites. Trans-splicing efficiency may correlate with the presence of notaffectthetrans-splicing in vitro between two these ESE sequences (2,3). Trans-splicing in vitro only occurs truncated constructs containing exon 2 and its when the 3′ exon contains ESE sequences (4). adjacent intron boundaries. In contrast, mutation of In the course of our research, natural trans-splicing was the downstream box from the rat sequence observed in rat carnitine octanoyltransferase (COT) pre-mRNAs (GAAGAAG) to a random sequence or the sequence (5). This mechanism produces three different transcripts: one observed in the other mammals (AAAAAAA) produced by cis-splicing and two produced by trans-splicing, decreased trans-splicing in vitro. In contrast, muta- in which exons 2 and 3 are repeated. Western blot analysis of tion of the AAAAAAA box of human COT exon 2 to peroxisomal proteins revealed two translated proteins with GAAGAAG increases trans-splicing. Heterologous molecular masses which may correspond to the cis-spliced as reactions between COT exon 2 from rat and human well as the trans-spliced RNAs in which exons 2 and 3 are do not produce trans-splicing. HeLa cells transfected repeated. Recently, trans-splicing corresponding to other with minigenes of rat COT sequences produced cis- genes has been observed in mammals. In some cases, mature mRNAs containing a mixture of exons from different genes and trans-spliced bands. Mutation of the GAAGAAG have been observed; this transcript heterogeneity may box to AAAAAAA abolished trans-splicing and contribute to phenotypic variation in mammals (6–12). decreased cis-splicing in vivo. We conclude that In this report we show that, in contrast to rat, other mammals GAAGAAG is an exonic splicing enhancer that could such as human, mouse, pig, cow and Cos7 cells of monkey do induce natural trans-splicing in rat COT. not produce detectable trans-splicing of the COT gene. We also show that trans-splicing in rat COT is not due to any metabolic, nutritional, hormonal or developmental condition. INTRODUCTION Trans-splicing in rat is attributable in part to the occurrence of The precise removal of introns from pre-mRNA by splicing is an ESE sequence (GAAGAAG). Trans-splicing is not found in an important step in the expression of genes. It requires the other mammals, which have a conserved sequence, interaction of several proteins and small ribonucleoprotein AAAAAAA, instead. Splicing experiments in vitro,inwhich particles, which all function in concert. These components the rat putative ESE sequence (GAAGAAG) was mutated *To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: +34 93 402 4523; Fax: +34 93 402 4520; Email: [email protected] The authors wish it to be known that, in their opinion, the first two authors should be regarded as joint First Authors Nucleic Acids Research, 2001, Vol. 29, No. 14 3109 either to a random sequence or to AAAAAAA, revealed a was also prepared by PCR taking construct B as template and marked decrease in trans-splicing of the COT pre-mRNA. primers I1.f (5′-CATGGGGTGCTAAATCCACA-3′)and Moreover, when the human COT exon 2 box AAAAAAA was MutESE2.r (5′-CTGACTCAAGGTACAGATGCAGTGAT- mutated to GAAGAAG in vitro a marked increase in TCTTC-3′) and subcloned into Bluescript SK+ digested with trans-splicing was observed. In vivo experiments also showed EcoRV. The sequences underlined above indicate the mutated that mutation of the GAAGAAG strongly decreased nucleotides. To reduce their polylinker regions, constructs C trans-splicing. This shows that the evolution from and D were cut with XhoIandEcoRI,bluntendedwiththeKle- AAAAAAA to GAAGAAG, which does not affect the protein now fragment and cloned in Bluescript SK+ previously sequence, enabled the rat to produce trans-splicing of the COT digested with SacI and blunt ended with T4 DNA polymerase. pre-mRNA. Construct E was prepared by PCR taking construct B as tem- plate. The primers used were I1.f and MutESE3.r (5′- CTGACTCAAGGTATTTTTTTAGTGATTCTTC-3′). Con- MATERIALS AND METHODS struct F was prepared by the megaprimer technique taking con- Rat treatment struct A as template. Primers for the first amplification were E2.f and MutESE3.r. In the second amplification primer I2.r Groups of adult rats, weighing 200–250 g (three for each treat- was used. The constructs G, H, I and J were obtained by PCR ment) were fed for 7 days with a fat diet or a diet supplemented amplifications using genomic DNA obtained from human with diethylhexylphthalate (DEHP) as described (13), or liver. The primers were designed using the human COT cDNA injected i.p. with insulin (40 U/kg body weight) and killed at sequence AF168793 (17) and the genomic sequence 30 min. ACC005045 from the DDBJ/EMBL/GenBank database that contains the human COT genomic sequence. PCR was per- Northern blot analysis and RNase H digestion of total µ RNA formed in a total volume of 50 l with 300 ng of genomic DNA, 1 mM of each primer and Pfu polymerase. The condi- Total RNA from different samples used was extracted with tions for PCR were 94°Cfor5minfollowedby30cyclesof guanidine isothiocyanate and purified by centrifugation 94°C for 45 s, 53°C for 45 s and 72°C for 1 min. Constructs G through a CsCl cushion (14). Twenty micrograms of total liver and H were obtained with primers hE2.f (5′-GTTTCCTATT- RNA was incubated with the primer E4.r-2 (5′-CTTCTTAG- GTGATTTTATC-3′) and hI2.r (5′-TATATACTAAAACAT- CAGCTGCCAGTAG-3′) and digested with 0.8 U RNase H as TATTAAC-3′), and hE2.r (5′-CTGATTCAAGGTATTTTTT- described (5). The 32P-labeled cDNA probe used corresponds TAATG-3′)andhI1.f(5′-GCTGGTACCAAGTCCTAGA- to positions 31 to 1700 bp in the rat COT cDNA sequence (15). TATGC-3′), respectively. Construct I was obtained with prim- mRNA analysis by northern blot was performed as described ers hI1.f and MutESE4.r (5′-CTGATTCAAGGTTGTTGTT- (5). GAATGATTCTTCAAG-3′). Construct J was obtained using a megaprimer asymmetric PCR; in the first PCR primers hE2.f RT and PCR and mutESE4.r were employed to produce the megaprimer, the RT was performed in 20 µl of a mixture containing 1 µgof second PCR was performed using the megaprimer and primer total liver RNA from human, cow, mouse, pig or Cos7 cultured hI2.r. All the blunt-ended PCR fragments (E–J) were sub- monkey cells or 1 µg of liver and intestine RNA from rats. clonedinpBluescriptSK+, previously digested with Ecl136II. Random hexamers were used as primers to synthesize the For the trans-splicing experiments, construct B was linear- cDNAs. The reaction was performed as described (5). The ized with EcoRI, constructs C and D with HindIII and conditions for the PCR were 94°C for 45 s; 55°C for 45 s and constructs A and E–J with NotI and all were transcribed with 72°C for 45 s for 35 cycles. The bands were purified with T3 RNA polymerase. In vitro trans-splicing assays were Quiaex kit (Stratagene) and sequenced with an automatic carried out as described (5). The products of trans-splicing sequencer ABI prism. were loaded on a denaturing 6% polyacrylamide/7 M urea gel. Autoradiographs of the labeled bands in the gels were scanned Constructs, pre-mRNA synthesis and trans-splicing with a Molecular Dynamics laser densitometer using the reaction in vitro internal integration to determine peak areas with the Image- Constructs A and B were prepared as described (5). Construct Quant program and also with the PhosphorImager technique. A1 was also prepared as described (5) but with less polylinker The percentage inhibition was calculated from the values of region from Bluescript vector. To this end, a fragment was the integration areas of the bands. amplified with E2.f (5′-TTTTCTTACTGTGACTATAC- CATGG-3′) and I2.r (5′-CTACACTAGAAGATTATGAA- Preparation of COT minigene constructs, cell culture and CATAC-3′) and subcloned in a plasmid Bluescript SK+ previ- transfections ously cut with Ecl136II, an isoschizomer of SacI that produces A minigene containing several regions of the rat COT gene blunt ends.