All organisms require robust methods for regulating expression of their genetic material. For the past five decades, transcriptional control has been the dominant paradigm by which regulation of gene expression has been described. More recently, however, it has become clear that regulation of pre-mRNA splicing can be an equally important regulatory mechanism. Whereas initial estimates suggested that only a small fraction of human genes would be alternatively spliced, recent evidence demonstrates that as many as 95% of all human genes are subject to this level of regulation. Nevertheless, the mechanisms by which this regulation is manifested have not been widely elucidated. To better understand how pre-mRNA splicing functions as a regulatory control point, we have chosen to examine the genetically tractable fission yeast, Schizosaccharomyces pombe. In many ways, splicing in S. pombe looks similar to splicing in higher eukaryotes. Introns have been identified in nearly half of all S. pombe genes, and single genes are interrupted by as many as 16 introns. The evolutionary retention of these introns suggested to us that splicing regulation might be a prevalent mechanism for gene regulation in S. pombe, making it a compelling system in which to undertake these experiments. Indeed, results of our initial experiments have borne out this hypothesis. Using a novel set of genome-wide tools that we developed, we have now identified distinct subsets of transcripts whose splicing is regulated in response to changing cellular environment. Strikingly, many of these regulated events mimic the paradigms that define alternative splicing in mammalian cells. The goals of our current work are to understand the trans-acting factors and cis-regulatory elements that are necessary for this regulation. Toward this end, we will employ a novel, high-throughput reverse genetic screen that we recently developed to identify the full complement of cellular proteins that are necessary for these regulated events. Similarly, we will use a forward genetic approach to identify all of the elements within these transcripts that are required for their regulation. The combination of these approaches should provide tremendous insights into the mechanisms by which this organism can regulate its gene expression via this pathway. Given the high level of conservation between splicing in S. pombe and humans, this work is likely to provide important insights into splicing regulation in higher eukaryotes. Moreover, because a significant number of human diseases are associated with mis-regulation of splicing, our understanding of the underlying parameters of this pathway should be of immediate clinical significance.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
3R01GM098634-05S1
Application #
9335621
Study Section
Program Officer
Bender, Michael T
Project Start
2011-08-01
Project End
2017-07-31
Budget Start
2015-08-01
Budget End
2017-07-31
Support Year
5
Fiscal Year
2016
Total Cost
$177,026
Indirect Cost
$57,026
Name
Cornell University
Department
Biochemistry
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
872612445
City
Ithaca
State
NY
Country
United States
Zip Code
14850
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Mayerle, Megan; Raghavan, Madhura; Ledoux, Sarah et al. (2017) Structural toggle in the RNaseH domain of Prp8 helps balance splicing fidelity and catalytic efficiency. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 114:4739-4744
Yeh, Chung-Shu; Chang, Shang-Lin; Chen, Jui-Hui et al. (2017) The conserved AU dinucleotide at the 5' end of nascent U1 snRNA is optimized for the interaction with nuclear cap-binding-complex. Nucleic Acids Res 45:9679-9693
Vo, Tommy V; Das, Jishnu; Meyer, Michael J et al. (2016) A Proteome-wide Fission Yeast Interactome Reveals Network Evolution Principles from Yeasts to Human. Cell 164:310-323
Fair, Benjamin Jung; Pleiss, Jeffrey A (2016) The power of fission: yeast as a tool for understanding complex splicing. Curr Genet :
Inada, Maki; Nichols, Robert J; Parsa, Jahan-Yar et al. (2016) Phospho-site mutants of the RNA Polymerase II C-terminal domain alter subtelomeric gene expression and chromatin modification state in fission yeast. Nucleic Acids Res 44:9180-9189
Larson, Amy; Fair, Benjamin Jung; Pleiss, Jeffrey A (2016) Interconnections Between RNA-Processing Pathways Revealed by a Sequencing-Based Genetic Screen for Pre-mRNA Splicing Mutants in Fission Yeast. G3 (Bethesda) 6:1513-23
Alfonso-Parra, Catalina; Ahmed-Braimah, Yasir H; Degner, Ethan C et al. (2016) Mating-Induced Transcriptome Changes in the Reproductive Tract of Female Aedes aegypti. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 10:e0004451
Stepankiw, Nicholas; Raghavan, Madhura; Fogarty, Elizabeth A et al. (2015) Widespread alternative and aberrant splicing revealed by lariat sequencing. Nucleic Acids Res 43:8488-501
Das, Jishnu; Vo, Tommy V; Wei, Xiaomu et al. (2013) Cross-species protein interactome mapping reveals species-specific wiring of stress response pathways. Sci Signal 6:ra38

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