MCB
Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Lou, H.
Right arrow Articles by Berget, S. M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Lou, H.
Right arrow Articles by Berget, S. M.

Molecular and Cellular Biology, September 1998, p. 4977-4985, Vol. 18, No. 9
0270-7306/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Regulation of Alternative Polyadenylation by U1 snRNPs and SRp20

Hua Lou,1,2,* Karla M. Neugebauer,3 Robert F. Gagel,2 and Susan M. Berget1

Verna and Marrs McLean Department of Biochemistry, Baylor College of Medicine,1 and Section of Endocrine Neoplasia and Hormonal Disorders, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center,2Houston, Texas 77030, and Division of Basic Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington 981093

Received 20 April 1998/Returned for modification 20 May 1998/Accepted 2 June 1998

Although considerable information is currently available about the factors involved in constitutive vertebrate polyadenylation, the factors and mechanisms involved in facilitating communication between polyadenylation and splicing are largely unknown. Even less is known about the regulation of polyadenylation in genes in which 3'-terminal exons are alternatively recognized. Here we demonstrate that an SR protein, SRp20, affects recognition of an alternative 3'-terminal exon via an effect on the efficiency of binding of a polyadenylation factor to an alternative polyadenylation site. The gene under study codes for the peptides calcitonin and calcitonin gene-related peptide. Its pre-mRNA is alternatively processed by the tissue-specific inclusion or exclusion of an embedded 3'-terminal exon, exon 4, via factors binding to an intronic enhancer element that contains both 3' and 5' splice site consensus sequence elements. In cell types that preferentially exclude exon 4, addition of wild-type SRp20 enhances exon 4 inclusion via recognition of the intronic enhancer. In contrast, in cell types that preferentially include exon 4, addition of a mutant form of SRp20 containing the RNA-binding domain but missing the SR domain inhibits exon 4 inclusion. Inhibition is likely at the level of polyadenylation, because the mutant SRp20 inhibits binding of CstF to the exon 4 poly(A) site. This is the first demonstration that an SR protein can influence alternative polyadenylation and suggests that this family of proteins may play a role in recognition of 3'-terminal exons and perhaps in the communication between polyadenylation and splicing.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Verna and Marrs McLean Department of Biochemistry, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030. Phone: (713) 798-4622. Fax: (713) 795-5487. E-mail: hlou{at}bcm.tmc.edu.

Molecular and Cellular Biology, September 1998, p. 4977-4985, Vol. 18, No. 9
0270-7306/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


This article has been cited by other articles:



Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
J. Bacteriol. J. Virol. Eukaryot. Cell
Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. Clin. Vaccine Immunol. All ASM Journals

Copyright © 1998 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.