hiCLIP reveals the in vivo atlas of mRNA secondary structures recognized by Staufen 1

Abstract

AbstractmRNA structure is important for post-transcriptional regulation, largely because it affects binding of trans-acting factors 1 . However, little is known about the in vivo structure of full-length mRNAs. Here we present hiCLIP, a high-throughput technique to identify RNA secondary structures interacting with RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) in vivo. Using this technique to investigate RNA structures bound by Staufen 1 (STAU1), we uncover a dominance of intra-molecular RNA duplexes, a depletion of duplexes from coding regions of highly translated mRNAs, an unforeseen prevalence of long-range duplexes in 3′ untranslated regions (UTRs), and a decreased incidence of SNPs in duplex-forming regions. We also discover a duplex spanning 858nts in the 3′ UTR of the X-box binding Protein 1 (XBP1) mRNA that regulates its cytoplasmic splicing and stability. Our study reveals the fundamental role of mRNA secondary structures in gene regulation and introduces hiCLIP as a widely applicable method for discovering novel, especially long-range, RNA duplexes.

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