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 arrowReprints and Permissions
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 Spike, C. A.
Right arrow Articles by Herman, R. K.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Spike, C. A.
Right arrow Articles by Herman, R. K.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Molecular and Cellular Biology, August 2001, p. 4985-4995, Vol. 21, No. 15
0270-7306/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/MCB.21.15.4985-4995.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Analysis of smu-1, a Gene That Regulates the Alternative Splicing of unc-52 Pre-mRNA in Caenorhabditis elegans

Caroline A. Spike, Jocelyn E. Shaw, and Robert K. Herman*

Department of Genetics, Cell Biology, and Development, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota 55108

Received 29 March 2001/Accepted 4 May 2001

Mutations in the smu-1 gene of Caenorhabditis elegans were previously shown to suppress mutations in the genes mec-8 and unc-52. mec-8 encodes a putative RNA binding protein that affects the accumulation of specific alternatively spliced mRNA isoforms produced by unc-52 and other genes. unc-52 encodes a set of basement membrane proteins, homologs of mammalian perlecan, that are important for body wall muscle assembly and attachment to basement membrane, hypodermis, and cuticle. We show that a presumptive null mutation in smu-1 suppresses nonsense mutations in exon 17 but not exon 18 of unc-52 and enhances the phenotype conferred by an unc-52 splice site mutation in intron 16. We have used reverse transcription-PCR and RNase protection to show that loss-of-function smu-1 mutations enhance accumulation in larvae of an alternatively spliced isoform that skips exon 17 but not exon 18 of unc-52. We have identified smu-1 molecularly; it encodes a nuclearly localized protein that contains five WD motifs and is ubiquitously expressed. The SMU-1 amino acid sequence is more than 60% identical to a predicted human protein of unknown function. We propose that smu-1 encodes a trans-acting factor that regulates the alternative splicing of the pre-mRNA of unc-52 and other genes.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Genetics, Cell Biology, and Development, University of Minnesota, 250 BioScience Center, 1445 Gortner Ave., St. Paul, MN 55108. Phone: (612) 624-6203. Fax: (612) 625-5754. E-mail: bob-h{at}umn.edu.

Molecular and Cellular Biology, August 2001, p. 4985-4995, Vol. 21, No. 15
0270-7306/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/MCB.21.15.4985-4995.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Chung, T., Wang, D., Kim, C.-S., Yadegari, R., Larkins, B. A. (2009). Plant SMU-1 and SMU-2 Homologues Regulate Pre-mRNA Splicing and Multiple Aspects of Development. Plant Physiol. 151: 1498-1512 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Dassah, M., Patzek, S., Hunt, V. M., Medina, P. E., Zahler, A. M. (2009). A Genetic Screen for Suppressors of a Mutated 5' Splice Site Identifies Factors Associated With Later Steps of Spliceosome Assembly. Genetics 182: 725-734 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Wang, X., Zhang, W., Cheever, T., Schwarz, V., Opperman, K., Hutter, H., Koepp, D., Chen, L. (2008). The C. elegans L1CAM homologue LAD-2 functions as a coreceptor in MAB-20/Sema2 mediated axon guidance. JCB 180: 233-246 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Sugaya, K., Hongo, E., Ishihara, Y., Tsuji, H. (2006). The conserved role of Smu1 in splicing is characterized in its mammalian temperature-sensitive mutant. J. Cell Sci. 119: 4944-4951 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Spartz, A. K., Herman, R. K., Shaw, J. E. (2004). SMU-2 and SMU-1, Caenorhabditis elegans Homologs of Mammalian Spliceosome-Associated Proteins RED and fSAP57, Work Together To Affect Splice Site Choice. Mol. Cell. Biol. 24: 6811-6823 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Jiang, X., Couchman, J. R. (2003). Perlecan and Tumor Angiogenesis. J. Histochem. Cytochem. 51: 1393-1410 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Lodato, P., Alcaino, J., Barahona, S., Retamales, P., Cifuentes, V. (2003). Alternative Splicing of Transcripts from crtI and crtYB Genes of Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 69: 4676-4682 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Spike, C. A., Davies, A. G., Shaw, J. E., Herman, R. K. (2002). MEC-8 regulates alternative splicing of unc-52 transcripts in C. elegans hypodermal cells. Development 129: 4999-5008 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Emes, R. D., Ponting, C. P. (2001). A new sequence motif linking lissencephaly, Treacher Collins and oral-facial-digital type 1 syndromes, microtubule dynamics and cell migration. Hum Mol Genet 10: 2813-2820 [Abstract] [Full Text]  


Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology.   For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»