Special Issue Article Journal of Child Neurology Volume 22 Number 8 August 2007 990-994 © 2007 Sage Publications 10.1177/0883073807305666 Molecular Functions of the SMN Complex http://jcn.sagepub.com hosted at http://online.sagepub.com Stephen J. Kolb, MD, PhD, Daniel J. Battle, PhD, and Gideon Dreyfuss, PhD The SMN complex is essential for the biogenesis of spliceoso- contains 7 additional proteins known as Gemin2-8, each likely mal small nuclear ribonucleoproteins and likely functions in to play a role in ribonucleoprotein biogenesis. This review the assembly, metabolism, and transport of a diverse number focuses on the current understanding of the mechanism of the of other ribonucleoproteins. Specifically, the SMN complex role of the SMN complex in small nuclear ribonucleoprotein assembles 7 Sm proteins into a core structure around a highly assembly and considers the relationship of this function to conserved sequence of ribonucleic acid (RNA) found in small spinal muscular atrophy. nuclear RNAs. The complex recognizes specific sequences and structural features of small nuclear RNAs and Sm proteins and assembles small nuclear ribonucleoproteins in a stepwise Keywords: spinal muscular atrophy; ribonucleoproteins; fashion. In addition to the SMN protein, the SMN complex Gemin2-8 utations in the survival motor neuron gene Since 1995, when mutations in SMN were shown to (SMN) that decrease expression of the func- cause spinal muscular atrophy,2 there has been great Mtional SMN protein result in spinal muscular progress toward understanding the molecular functions of atrophy. Within the pediatric population, spinal muscular the SMN protein in cells, the cellular pathways that are atrophy can be included in the list of single gene defect affected by decreased expression of SMN, and the design of diseases where the loss of a single essential protein potential therapeutic strategies to treat patients with this dis- expressed in all tissues and cells results in the selective ease. Several recent reviews have discussed SMN function.1,3-6 death of a single cell type. In the case of spinal muscular Here we focus on the function of SMN in spliceosomal atrophy, this is the lower motor neuron. As has been ribonucleoprotein biogenesis and on how defects in this noted elsewhere, another example of this type of disease function may result in spinal muscular atrophy. is Rett syndrome, which results from mutations in a tran- scriptional repressor that is also ubiquitously expressed.1 Like Rett syndrome, the basis of cell selectivity in spinal The SMN Complex muscular atrophy is not clear. Spinal muscular atrophy also shares similarities (and, consequently, pathogenic The SMN protein is a 294–amino acid polypeptide that is riddles) with several adult neurodegenerative disorders that expressed in all metazoans and in all cell types of vertebrate affect motor neurons, including amyotrophic lateral sclero- organisms. Biochemically, SMN does not appear to exist sis, primary lateral sclerosis, hereditary spastic parapareses, within cells in isolation but instead forms part of a large and the distal hereditary neuropathies. Thus, lessons from protein complex, the SMN complex. The SMN complex is the study of the molecular pathogenesis of spinal muscular composed of the SMN protein and 7 additional proteins, 7-14 atrophy may provide important insights into other neuroge- Gemin2-8. The Gemins bind to and colocalize with SMN netic diseases. in the cytoplasm and in discrete nuclear bodies called gems.11 The SMN protein is an essential protein in all cell types studied thus far. Complete knockout of SMN results From the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Department of in embryonic lethality in divergent organisms, including Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of Pennsylvania School of human, mouse, chicken, and Caenorhabditis elegans and is Medicine, Philadelphia. also lethal in Schizosaccharomyces pombe. In experimental Address correspondence to: Gideon Dreyfuss, PhD, Department of systems, SMN expression appears necessary for cell survival Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of Pennsylvania School of Medi- cine, 330 Clinical Research Building, 415 Curie Boulevard, Philadelphia, regardless of cell type; therefore, a major mystery of the PA 19104-6148; e-mail: [email protected]. pathogenesis in spinal muscular atrophy is the basis of motor Kolb SJ, Battle DJ, Dreyfuss G. Molecular functions of the SMN complex. neuron–specific cell loss with relative depletion of SMN J Child Neurol. 2007;22:990-994. throughout the body. 990 Molecular Functions of the SMN Complex / Kolb et al 991 The SMN complex is large (40S to 80S in sucrose gradi- How do cells ensure that Sm proteins will be assem- ent sedimentation) and is salt resistant (750-mmol/L NaCl)4; bled only onto the correct small nuclear ribonucleopro- however, under less stringent conditions, the SMN complex tein? This is where the SMN complex is essential. The is bound to several proteins, including the spliceosomal Sm SMN complex directly recognizes and binds to both the proteins.15,16 Insights into the possible cellular functions of protein and the RNA components of the ribonucleopro- the SMN complex have been derived from a detailed analy- teins and facilitates their interaction, thereby ensuring a sis of the substrate proteins and small nuclear ribonucleic strict specificity of the small nuclear ribonucleoprotein acids (RNAs) that interact with the SMN complex.17,18 The assembly process (Figure 1). function of the SMN complex in spliceosomal small nuclear To enforce specificity, the SMN complex must be able to ribonucleoprotein assembly is discussed in detail later here specifically bind to Sm proteins. In fact, each component of and serves as an example of SMN function; however, the SMN complex, except Gemin2, binds directly to Sm pro- the SMN complex likely also functions in the assembly, teins. Gemin6 and Gemin7 were both recently shown to have metabolism, and transport of diverse classes of ribonucleo- structures similar to Sm proteins, and reduction of Gemin6 proteins, including small nucleolar ribonucleoproteins, by RNA interference disrupted the ability of the SMN com- telomerase ribonucleoprotein, microribonucleoproteins, and plex to bind Sm proteins. In addition, the SMN protein itself the machineries that carry out transcription and premessen- binds to arginine- and glycine-rich domains found in the Sm ger RNA splicing.18-29 proteins B, D1, and D3. This interaction is enhanced by a posttranslational, symmetric dimethyl arginine modification that occurs at specific arginines in the glycine-rich domains Spliceosomal U Small Nuclear of the Sm proteins—a reaction carried out by the 20S methy- Ribonucleoprotein Assembly losome that contains an arginine methyltransferase called JBP1 or PRMT5.17 Clearly, the SMN complex is a machine The premessenger RNA splicing process is essential for the designed to bind Sm proteins. successful execution of eukaryotic gene expression and is The SMN complex also binds directly and with sequence carried out by the spliceosome in the nucleus. The major specificity to the spliceosomal U small nuclear RNAs.16,42 components of the spliceosome are the U1, U2, U5, and The minimal SMN complex–binding domain in small nuclear U4/U6 small nuclear ribonucleoproteins.30 Each of the RNAs, except U1, is composed of an Sm site (AUUUUUG) small nuclear ribonucleoproteins (except for U6) is com- and an adjacent 3' stem loop (Figure 2). A detailed analysis posed of 1 small nuclear RNA molecule, a set of 7 common of this binding demonstrated that although the Sm site is proteins, and several proteins specific to individual small recognized by virtue of its sequence, the specific sequence of nuclear RNAs.30-32 A crucial aspect of small nuclear ribonu- the adjacent 3' stem loop is not important, provided that it is cleoprotein biogenesis is that although assembly of these located within a short distance of the 3' end of the RNA and components can occur spontaneously in vitro, within cells, that the stem contains from 7 to 12 base pairs and the loop the process is highly regulated and requires both adenosine contains 4 to 17 nucleotides.42 These sequence and struc- triphosphate hydrolysis and dedicated assembly factors.15,33 tural features appear to be uniquely present within U small Small nuclear ribonucleoprotein biogenesis begins with the nuclear RNAs (interestingly, they are also present in the transcription of the U small nuclear RNAs in the nucleus, small nuclear RNA encoded by the lymphotrophic followed by their export to the cytoplasm, where the major Herpesvirus saimiri43); therefore, the SMN complex scruti- assembly of the small nuclear ribonucleoproteins occurs. nizes RNAs that contain an Sm site, identifies the spliceoso- The common proteins, called Sm proteins (B/B', D1, D2, mal small nuclear RNAs by recognizing the small nuclear D3, E, F, and G), are arranged into a stable heptameric ring, ribonucleoprotein code contained within them, and then the Sm core, on a highly conserved, uridine-rich sequence assembles Sm proteins onto them. motif, the Sm site, of the small nuclear RNAs.34-36 After It is now apparent that the Gemins, not only the SMN assembly, the 7-methyl guanosine cap of the small nuclear protein, are essential to the process of small nuclear RNA is modified into a 2,2,7-trimethyl guanosine cap, and ribonucleoprotein assembly. Recently, Gemin5 was iden- the properly assembled and modified small nuclear ribonu- tified as the small nuclear