Alternative splicing is a key factor contributing to genetic diversity and evolution. Intron retention, one form of alternative splicing, is common in plants but rare in higher eukaryotes, because messenger RNAs with retained introns are subject to cellular restriction at the level of cytoplasmic export and expression. Often, retention of internal introns restricts the export of these mRNAs and makes them the targets for degradation by the cellular nonsense-mediated decay machinery if they contain premature stop codons. In fact, many of the database entries for complementary DNAs with retained introns represent them as artefacts that would not affect the proteome. Retroviruses are important model systems in studies of regulation of RNAs with retained introns, because their genomic and mRNAs contain one or more unspliced introns. For example, Mason-Pfizer monkey virus overcomes cellular restrictions by using a cis-acting RNA element known as the constitutive transport element (CTE). The CTE interacts directly with the Tap protein (also known as nuclear RNA export factor 1, encoded by NXF1), which is thought to be a principal export receptor for cellular mRNA, leading to the hypothesis that cellular mRNAs with retained introns use cellular CTE equivalents to overcome restrictions to their expression. Here we show that the Tap gene contains a functional CTE in its alternatively spliced intron 10. Tap mRNA containing this intron is exported to the cytoplasm and is present in polyribosomes. A small Tap protein is encoded by this mRNA and can be detected in human and monkey cells. Our results indicate that Tap regulates expression of its own intron-containing RNA through a CTE-mediated mechanism. Thus, CTEs are likely to be important elements that facilitate efficient expression of mammalian mRNAs with retained introns.
The BRAF V600E mutation is found in approximately 6% of human cancers and mimics the phosphorylation of the kinase domain activation segment. In wild-type B-Raf (B-Raf wt ), activation segment phosphorylation is thought to cooperate with negative charges within the N-region for full activation. In contrast to Raf-1, the N-region of B-Raf is constitutively negatively charged owing to the presence of residues D447/D448 and the phosphorylation of S446. Therefore, it has been suggested that this hallmark predisposes B-Raf for oncogenic activation. In this study, we demonstrate that neutralizing mutations of these residues (in particular S446 and S447), or uncoupling of B-Raf from Ras-guanine 5 0 -triphosphate (GTP), strongly reduce the biological activity of B-Raf in a PC12 cell differentiation assay. We also confirm that S365 is a 14-3-3 binding site, and determine that mutation of this residue rescues the impaired biological activity of B-Raf proteins with a neutralized N-region, suggesting that the N-region opposes a 14-3-3-mediated transition into an inactive conformation. However, in the case of B-Raf V600E , although complete N-region neutralization resulted in a 2.5-fold reduction in kinase activity in vitro, this oncoprotein strongly induced PC12 differentiation or transformation and epithelial-mesenchymal transition of MCF-10A cells regardless of its N-region charge. Furthermore, the biological activity of B-Raf V600E was independent of its ability to bind Ras-GTP. Our analysis identifies important regulatory differences between B-Raf wt and B-Raf V600E and suggests that B-Raf V600E cannot be inhibited by strategies aimed at blocking S446 phosphorylation or Ras activation. Keywords: Ras; 14-3-3 proteins; b-Catenin; E-cadherin; mammary epithelial cells IntroductionThe Ras/Raf/mitogen-activated/extracellular-regulated kinase (MEK)/extracellular signal regulated kinase (ERK) pathway plays a pivotal role in control of proliferation and differentiation and, owing to its role as a gatekeeper of this pathway, Raf appears an attractive therapeutic target (O'Neill and Kolch, 2004;Wilhelm et al., 2004). The Raf-kinase family comprises the A-Raf, B-Raf and Raf-1 isoforms in vertebrates as well as D-Raf and LIN-45 in Drosophila and Caenorhabditis, respectively. B-Raf, the major ERK activator in vertebrates, is required for the maintenance of basal ERK activity and displays the most potent transforming activity (Papin et al., 1998;Brummer et al., 2002;Mercer and Pritchard, 2003). All isoforms share three highly conserved regions (CRs; Figure 1a): the N-terminal CR1 contains the Ras-guanine 5 0 -triphosphate (GTP)-binding domain (RBD), which initiates the interaction with Ras-GTP through a conserved arginine residue (R188 in B-Raf) that is required for the recruitment and activation of Raf at the plasma membrane. Consequently, mutation of this residue prevents Ras/Raf interaction and renders D-Raf, B-Raf and Raf-1 unresponsive to most extracellular signals (Hou et al., 1995;Marais et al., 1997;Brummer et al., 2002). The ...
The extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) pathway plays an important role during the development and activation of B lymphocytes. We have recently shown that B-Raf is a dominant ERK activator in B-cell antigen receptor signalling. We now show that B-Raf is hyperphosphorylated upon BCR engagement and undergoes a prominent electrophoretic mobility shift. This shift correlates with ERK activation and is prevented by the MEK inhibitor U0126. Syk-deficient DT40 B cells display neither dual ERK phosphorylation nor a mobility shift of B-Raf upon BCR engagement. The inducible expression of a constitutively active B-Raf in this mutant line restores dual ERK phosphorylation and the mobility shift of endogenous B-Raf, indicating that these two events are connected to each other. By site-directed mutagenesis studies, we demonstrate that the shift is due to an ERK2-mediated feedback phosphorylation of serine/threonine residues within an evolutionary conserved SPKTP motif at the C-terminus of B-Raf. Replacement of these residues by negatively charged amino acids causes a constitutive mobility shift and a reduction of PC12 cell differentiation. We discuss a model in which ERK-mediated phosphorylation of the SPKTP motif is involved in negative feedback regulation of B-Raf.
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