The U2AF35-related protein Urp contacts the 3′ splice site to promote U12-type intron splicing and the second step of U2-type intron splicing

Haihong Shen; Xuexiu Zheng; Stephan Luecke; Michael R. Green

doi:10.1101/gad.1974810

The U2AF35-related protein Urp contacts the 3′ splice site to promote U12-type intron splicing and the second step of U2-type intron splicing

¹Department of Life Science, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Gwangju 500-712, Korea;
²Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts 01605, USA;
³Program in Gene Function and Expression, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts 01605, USA;
⁴Program in Molecular Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts 01605, USA

↵5 These authors contributed equally to this work.

Abstract

The U2AF35-related protein Urp has been implicated previously in splicing of the major class of U2-type introns. Here we show that Urp is also required for splicing of the minor class of U12-type introns. Urp is recruited in an ATP-dependent fashion to the U12-type intron 3′ splice site, where it promotes formation of spliceosomal complexes. Remarkably, Urp also contacts the 3′ splice site of a U2-type intron, but in this case is specifically required for the second step of splicing. Thus, through recognition of a common splicing element, Urp facilitates distinct steps of U2- and U12-type intron splicing.

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Footnotes

↵6 Corresponding authors.

E-MAIL michael.green{at}umassmed.edu; FAX (508) 856-5473.
↵7 E-MAIL haihongshen{at}gist.ac.kr; FAX 82-62-970-2484.
Article is online at http://www.genesdev.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gad.1974810.
Supplemental material is available at http://www.genesdev.org.