RRM
2009 Rustbelt RNA Meeting
RRM
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Poster abstracts
Abstract:
Regulation of gene expression by mRNA processing mechanisms wildly exists in eukaryotes, where mRNA polyadenylation and pre-mRNA splicing are two essential steps for the maturation of the most mRNAs. However, much reminds to be learned regarding the regulatory mechanisms of alternative polyadenylation and alternative splicing in plants. Here we focus on a gene in Arabidopsis named OXT6 which has been demonstrated to encode two proteins that may link both polyadenylation and splicing processing. Specifically, intron-2 of the OXT6 gene may play an essential role in the formation of the two different transcripts. Splicing of intron-2 will lead to formation of a transcript encoding a 68 kDa protein, while polyadenylation within intron-2 produces a shorter transcript coding for a 30 kDa proteins. The smaller protein (Arabidopsis ortholog of 30 kDa subunit of the Cleavage and Polyadenylation Specificity Factor, AtCPSF30) has been demonstrated to be involved in pre-mRNA polyadenylation, while the larger one contains a domain implicated in mRNA splicing. A set of mutations have been introduced at both the splicing sites and polyadenylation signals within intron-2 to change the splicing and polyadenylation patterns. These constructs are introduced into the wild type and oxt6 mutant backgrounds (where the expression of OXT6 gene is interrupted by T-DNA insertion), and the splicing and polyadenylation events of these constructs will be monitored. From this exercise, the relationships among splicing, polyadenylation, and the different backgrounds may be drawn. The analysis of the expression on OXT6 gene may provide us new evidence on the interaction between splicing and polyadenylation factors in plants, and some basic information on how alternative polyadenylation and alternative splicing affect each other and affect gene expression in general. The results of the research will be presented at the meeting.
References:
Delaney, K., Xu, R., Li, Q.Q., Yun, K.Y., Falcone, D.L. and Hunt, A.G. (2006) Calmodulin interacts with and regulates the RNA-binding activity of an Arabidopsis polyadenylation factor subunit. Plant Physiol, 140, 1507-1521.
Hunt, A. G., Xu, R., et.al and Li, Q. Q. (2008) Arabidopsis mRNA polyadenylation machinery: comprehensive analysis of protein-protein interactions and gene expression profiling. BMC Genomics, 9:220
Keywords: mRNA processing, alternative splicing, alternative polyadenylation
