Summary It is believed that the introns are removed from pre-mRNAs during transcription, while the pre-mRNA is still tethered to the gene locus via RNA polymerase. However, during alternative splicing it is important that splicing be deferred until all of the exons and introns involved in the choice have been synthesized. We have developed an in situ RNA imaging method with single-molecule sensitivity to define the intracellular sites of splicing. Using this approach, we found that the normally tight coupling between transcription and splicing is broken in situations where the intron’s polypyrimidine tract is sequestered within strong secondary structures. We also found that in two cases of alternative splicing, in which certain exons are skipped due to the activity of the RNA binding proteins Sxl and PTB, splicing is uncoupled from transcription. This uncoupling occurs only on the perturbed introns, while the preceding and succeeding introns are removed co-transcriptionally.

The androgen receptor (AR) plays a critical role in the development of the normal prostate as well as prostate cancer. Using an integrative transcriptomic analysis of prostate cancer cell lines and tissues, we identified ARLNC1 (AR-regulated long non-coding RNA 1) as an important long non-coding RNA that is strongly associated with AR signaling in prostate cancer progression. Not only was ARLNC1 induced by AR protein, ARLNC1 stabilized the AR transcript via RNA-RNA interaction. ARLNC1 knockdown suppressed AR expression, global AR signaling, and prostate cancer growth in vitro and in vivo. Taken together, these data support a role for ARLNC1 in maintaining a positive feedback loop that potentiates AR signaling during prostate cancer progression, and identifies ARLNC1 as a novel therapeutic target.

RNA transport granules deliver translationally repressed mRNAs to synaptic sites in dendrites, where synaptic activity promotes their localized translation. Although the identity of many proteins that make up the neuronal granules is known, the stoichiometry of their core component, the mRNA, is poorly understood. By imaging nine different dendritically localized mRNA species with single-molecule sensitivity and subdiffraction-limit resolution in cultured hippocampal neurons, we show that two molecules of the same or different mRNA species do not assemble in common structures. Even mRNA species with a common dendritic localization element, the sequence that is believed to mediate the incorporation of these mRNAs into common complexes, do not colocalize. These results suggest that mRNA molecules traffic to the distal reaches of dendrites singly and independently of others, a model that permits a finer control of mRNA content within a synapse for synaptic plasticity.long-term potentiation | mRNA localization | RNA granules | single-molecule imaging | synaptic transmission

Immune responses to viral infection are stochastic processes, which initiate in a limited number of cells that then propagate the response. A key component of the response to viral infection entails the synthesis and secretion of type I interferons (IFNs), including the early induction of the gene encoding IFN-β (Ifnb1). With single-cell analysis and mathematical modeling, we investigated the mechanisms underlying how increases in the amount of Ifnb1 mRNA per cell and in the numbers of cells expressing Ifnb1 calibrate the response to viral infection. We used single-cell, single-molecule assays to quantify the early induction of Ifnb1 expression (the Ifnb1 response) in human monocyte-derived dendritic cells infected with Newcastle disease virus, thus retaining the physiological stoichiometry of transcriptional regulators to both alleles of the Ifnb1 gene. We applied computational methods to extract the stochastic features that underlie the cell-to-cell variations in gene expression over time. Integration of simulations and experiments identified the role of paracrine signaling in increasing the number of cells that express Ifnb1 over time and in calibrating the immune response to viral infection.

One Sentence Summary: The Y chromosome in garden asparagus determines sex via two Y-linked genes, one that suppresses female pistil development and another that promotes male anther development. AbstractThe origin and early evolution of sex chromosomes has been hypothesized to involve the linkage of factors with antagonistic effects on male and female function. Garden asparagus (Asparagus officinalis L.) is an ideal species to investigate this hypothesis, as the X and Y chromosomes are cytologically homomorphic and evolved from an ancestral autosome pair in association with a shift from hermaphroditism to dioecy. Mutagenesis screens paired with single-molecule fluorescence in situ hybridization (smFISH) directly implicate Y-specific genes that respectively suppress female (pistil) development and are necessary for male (anther) development. Comparison of contiguous X and Y chromosome assemblies shows that hemizygosity underlies the loss of recombination between the genes suppressing female organogenesis (SUPPRESSOR OF FEMALE FUNCTION, SOFF) and promoting male function (TAPETAL DEVELOPMENT AND FUNCTION1, aspTDF1). We also experimentally demonstrate the function of aspTDF1. These findings provide direct evidence that sex chromosomes can function through linkage of two sex determination genes.

circRNAs arise from back splicing events during mRNA processing, and when deregulated can play an active role in cancer. Here we characterize a new circRNA (circPOK) encoded by the Zbtb7a gene (also kown as POKEMON, LRF) in the context of mesenchymal tumor progression. circPOK functions as a non-coding proto-oncogenic RNA independently and antithetically to its linear transcript counterpart, which acts as a tumor suppressor by encoding the Pokemon transcription factor. We find that circPOK regulates proproliferative and pro-angiogenic factors by co-activation of the ILF2/3 complex. Importantly, the expression of Pokemon protein and circRNA is aberrantly uncoupled in cancer through differential post-transcriptional regulation. Thus, we identify a novel type of genetic unit, the iRegulon, that yields biochemically distinct RNA products, circular and linear, with diverse and antithetical functions. Our findings further expand the cellular repertoire towards the control of normal biological outputs, while aberrant expression of such components may underlie disease pathogenesis including cancer.

This protocol describes a method to image individual mRNA molecules in situ. About 50 oligonucleotides complementary to different regions of a target mRNA species are used simultaneously. Each probe is labeled with a single fluorescent moiety. When these probes bind to their target, each mRNA molecule becomes so intensely fluorescent that it can be seen as a fine fluorescent spot. Several different mRNA species can be detected in multiplex imaging using differently colored probe sets for each species. An automated image-processing program is used to count the number of mRNA molecules of each species that are expressed in each cell, thus yielding single-cell gene expression profiles.

While biomolecular condensates have emerged as an important biological phenomenon, mechanisms regulating their composition and the ways that viruses hijack these mechanisms remain unclear. The mosquito-borne alphaviruses cause a range of diseases from rashes and arthritis to encephalitis, and no licensed drugs are available for treatment or vaccines for prevention. The alphavirus virulence factor nonstructural protein 3 (nsP3) suppresses the formation of stress granules (SGs)—a class of cytoplasmic condensates enriched with translation initiation factors and formed during the early stage of infection. nsP3 has a conserved N-terminal macrodomain that hydrolyzes ADP-ribose from ADP-ribosylated proteins and a C-terminal hypervariable domain that binds the essential SG component G3BP1. Here, we show that macrodomain hydrolase activity reduces the ADP-ribosylation of G3BP1, disassembles virus-induced SGs, and suppresses SG formation. Expression of nsP3 results in the formation of a distinct class of condensates that lack translation initiation factors but contain G3BP1 and other SG-associated RNA-binding proteins. Expression of ADP-ribosylhydrolase–deficient nsP3 results in condensates that retain translation initiation factors as well as RNA-binding proteins, similar to SGs. Therefore, our data reveal that ADP-ribosylation controls the composition of biomolecular condensates, specifically the localization of translation initiation factors, during alphavirus infection.