Splicing regulation: From a parts list of regulatory elements to an integrated splicing code

Abstract

Alternative splicing of pre-mRNAs is a major contributor to both proteomic diversity and control of gene expression levels. Splicing is tightly regulated in different tissues and developmental stages, and its disruption can lead to a wide range of human diseases. An important long-term goal in the splicing field is to determine a set of rules or ''code'' for splicing that will enable prediction of the splicing pattern of any primary transcript from its sequence. Outside of the core splice site motifs, the bulk of the information required for splicing is thought to be contained in exonic and intronic cis-regulatory elements that function by recruitment of sequence-specific RNA-binding protein factors that either activate or repress the use of adjacent splice sites. Here, we summarize the current state of knowledge of splicing cis-regulatory elements and their context-dependent effects on splicing, emphasizing recent global/genome-wide studies and open questions.Keywords: context dependence; pre-mRNA splicing; splicing code; splicing factor; splicing regulation PRE-MRNA SPLICING Because human genes typically contain multiple introns, the process of pre-mRNA splicing is an essential step in the expression of most genes. A majority of human genes undergo alternative splicing (AS), generating multiple splicing isoforms containing different combinations of exons (Johnson et al. 2003). The effects of AS on protein products can be dramatic, e.g., producing soluble versus membranebound forms of the Fas receptor that have opposing effects on apoptosis (Cascino et al. 1995), or producing isoforms of the Drosophila fruitless protein that act to specify sexual orientation (Demir and Dickson 2005). The major forms of AS are summarized in Figure 1A. Splicing regulation has been comprehensively described in several recent reviews (Black 2003;Konarska and Query 2005;Matlin et al. 2005;Blencowe 2006;House and Lynch 2008). Here, we briefly summarize some aspects of splicing specificity and regulation before turning to our main topic of splicing regulatory elements and the rules governing their activity.The sequential phosphodiester transfer reactions involved in splicing are catalyzed by large ribonucleoprotein complexes known as spliceosomes. Containing more than 100 core proteins and five small nuclear RNAs (snRNAs U1, U2, U4, U5, and U6), spliceosomes may be the most complex machines in the cell (Zhou et al. 2002;Jurica and Moore 2003;Nilsen 2003). In addition to these core factors, additional regulatory proteins participate in the splicing of particular pre-mRNAs. Splicing of most introns is thought to occur cotranscriptionally with fairly extensive interactions between splicing factors and the core transcription machinery ( CORE SPLICING SIGNALSThree sites, the 59 splice site (59ss), the 39 splice site (39ss), and the branch point sequence (BPS), participate in the splicing reaction and are present in every intron, and thus are known as the core splicing signals. These signals are recognized multiple times during spl...

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