Skip to main content
Article
Son Maintains Accurate Splicing for a Subset of Human Pre-mRNAs
Journal of Cell Science
  • Alok Sharma
  • Michael P. Markey, Wright State University - Main Campus
  • Keshia Torres-Munoz
  • Sapna Varia
  • Madhavi P. Kadakia, Wright State University - Main Campus
  • Athanasios Bubulya, Wright State University - Main Campus
  • Paula A. Bubulya, Wright State University - Main Campus
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-15-2011
Abstract

Serine-arginine-rich (SR) proteins play a key role in alternative pre-mRNA splicing in eukaryotes. We recently showed that a large SR protein called Son has unique repeat motifs that are essential for maintaining the subnuclear organization of pre-mRNA processing factors in nuclear speckles. Motif analysis of Son highlights putative RNA interaction domains that suggest a direct role for Son in pre-mRNA splicing. Here, we used in situ approaches to show that Son localizes to a reporter minigene transcription site, and that RNAi-mediated Son depletion causes exon skipping on reporter transcripts at this transcription site. A genome-wide exon microarray analysis was performed to identify human transcription and splicing targets of Son. Our data show that Son-regulated splicing encompasses all known types of alternative splicing, the most common being alternative splicing of cassette exons. We confirmed that knockdown of Son leads to exon skipping in pre-mRNAs for chromatin-modifying enzymes, including ADA, HDAC6 and SetD8. This study reports a comprehensive view of human transcription and splicing targets for Son in fundamental cellular pathways such as integrin-mediated cell adhesion, cell cycle regulation, cholesterol biosynthesis, apoptosis and epigenetic regulation of gene expression.

DOI
10.1242/​jcs.092239
Citation Information
Alok Sharma, Michael P. Markey, Keshia Torres-Munoz, Sapna Varia, et al.. "Son Maintains Accurate Splicing for a Subset of Human Pre-mRNAs" Journal of Cell Science Vol. 124 Iss. 24 (2011) p. 4286 - 4298 ISSN: 00219533
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/michael_markey/3/