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 Romfo, C. M.
Right arrow Articles by Wise, J. A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Romfo, C. M.
Right arrow Articles by Wise, J. A.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Molecular and Cellular Biology, November 2000, p. 7955-7970, Vol. 20, No. 21
0270-7306/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Evidence for Splice Site Pairing via Intron Definition in Schizosaccharomyces pombe

Charles M. Romfo, Consuelo J. Alvarez,dagger Willem J. van Heeckeren, Christopher J. Webb, and Jo Ann Wise*

Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 44106-4960

Received 7 January 2000/Returned for modification 15 February 2000/Accepted 1 August 2000

Schizosaccharomyces pombe pre-mRNAs are generally multi-intronic and share certain features with pre-mRNAs from Drosophila melanogaster, in which initial splice site pairing can occur via either exon or intron definition. Here, we present three lines of evidence suggesting that, despite these similarities, fission yeast splicing is most likely restricted to intron definition. First, mutating either or both splice sites flanking an internal exon in the S. pombe cdc2 gene produced almost exclusively intron retention, in contrast to the exon skipping observed in vertebrates. Second, we were unable to induce skipping of the internal microexon in fission yeast cgs2, whereas the default splicing pathway excludes extremely small exons in mammals. Because nearly quantitative removal of the downstream intron in cgs2 could be achieved by expanding the microexon, we propose that its retention is due to steric occlusion. Third, several cryptic 5' junctions in the second intron of fission yeast cdc2 are located within the intron, in contrast to their generally exonic locations in metazoa. The effects of expanding and contracting this intron are as predicted by intron definition; in fact, even highly deviant 5' junctions can compete effectively with the standard 5' splice site if they are closer to the 3' splicing signals. Taken together, our data suggest that pairing of splice sites in S. pombe most likely occurs exclusively across introns in a manner that favors excision of the smallest segment possible.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, 10900 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, OH 44106-4960. Phone: (216) 368-1876. Fax: (216) 368-2010. E-mail: jaw17{at}po.cwru.edu.

dagger Present address: Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Medical College of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, PO Box 98230, Richmond, VA 23298-0037.

Molecular and Cellular Biology, November 2000, p. 7955-7970, Vol. 20, No. 21
0270-7306/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Roy, M., Kim, N., Xing, Y., Lee, C. (2008). The effect of intron length on exon creation ratios during the evolution of mammalian genomes. RNA 14: 2261-2273 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Ellis, J. D., Lleres, D., Denegri, M., Lamond, A. I., Caceres, J. F. (2008). Spatial mapping of splicing factor complexes involved in exon and intron definition. JCB 181: 921-934 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Barbazuk, W. B., Fu, Y., McGinnis, K. M. (2008). Genome-wide analyses of alternative splicing in plants: Opportunities and challenges. Genome Res 18: 1381-1392 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Haraguchi, N., Andoh, T., Frendewey, D., Tani, T. (2007). Mutations in the SF1-U2AF59-U2AF23 Complex Cause Exon Skipping in Schizosaccharomyces pombe. J. Biol. Chem. 282: 2221-2228 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Collins, L., Penny, D. (2006). Investigating the Intron Recognition Mechanism in Eukaryotes. Mol Biol Evol 23: 901-910 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Galagan, J. E., Henn, M. R., Ma, L.-J., Cuomo, C. A., Birren, B. (2005). Genomics of the fungal kingdom: Insights into eukaryotic biology. Genome Res 15: 1620-1631 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Webb, C. J., Romfo, C. M., van Heeckeren, W. J., Wise, J. A. (2005). Exonic splicing enhancers in fission yeast: functional conservation demonstrates an early evolutionary origin. Genes Dev. 19: 242-254 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Kupfer, D. M., Drabenstot, S. D., Buchanan, K. L., Lai, H., Zhu, H., Dyer, D. W., Roe, B. A., Murphy, J. W. (2004). Introns and Splicing Elements of Five Diverse Fungi. Eukaryot Cell 3: 1088-1100 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Webb, C. J., Wise, J. A. (2004). The Splicing Factor U2AF Small Subunit Is Functionally Conserved between Fission Yeast and Humans. Mol. Cell. Biol. 24: 4229-4240 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Ptak, S. E., Petrov, D. A. (2002). How Intron Splicing Affects the Deletion and Insertion Profile in Drosophila melanogaster. Genetics 162: 1233-1244 [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»