Functional consequences of splicing of the antisense transcript COOLAIR on FLC transcription

TY - JOUR

T1 - Functional consequences of splicing of the antisense transcript COOLAIR on FLC transcription

AU - Marquardt, Sebastian

AU - Raitskin, Oleg

AU - Wu, Zhe

AU - Liu, Fuquan

AU - Sun, Qianwen

AU - Dean, Caroline

N1 - Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

PY - 2014/4/10

Y1 - 2014/4/10

N2 - Antisense transcription is widespread in many genomes; however, how much is functional is hotly debated. We are investigating functionality of a set of long noncoding antisense transcripts, collectively called COOLAIR, produced at Arabidopsis FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC). COOLAIR initiates just downstream of the major sense transcript poly(A) site and terminates either early or extends into the FLC promoter region. We now show that splicing of COOLAIR is functionally important. This was revealed through analysis of a hypomorphic mutation in the core spliceosome component PRP8. The prp8 mutation perturbs a cotranscriptional feedback mechanism linking COOLAIR processing to FLC gene body histone demethylation and reduced FLC transcription. The importance of COOLAIR splicing in this repression mechanism was confirmed by disrupting COOLAIR production and mutating the COOLAIR proximal splice acceptor site. Our findings suggest that altered splicing of a long noncoding transcript can quantitatively modulate gene expression through cotranscriptional coupling mechanisms.

AB - Antisense transcription is widespread in many genomes; however, how much is functional is hotly debated. We are investigating functionality of a set of long noncoding antisense transcripts, collectively called COOLAIR, produced at Arabidopsis FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC). COOLAIR initiates just downstream of the major sense transcript poly(A) site and terminates either early or extends into the FLC promoter region. We now show that splicing of COOLAIR is functionally important. This was revealed through analysis of a hypomorphic mutation in the core spliceosome component PRP8. The prp8 mutation perturbs a cotranscriptional feedback mechanism linking COOLAIR processing to FLC gene body histone demethylation and reduced FLC transcription. The importance of COOLAIR splicing in this repression mechanism was confirmed by disrupting COOLAIR production and mutating the COOLAIR proximal splice acceptor site. Our findings suggest that altered splicing of a long noncoding transcript can quantitatively modulate gene expression through cotranscriptional coupling mechanisms.

KW - Arabidopsis

KW - Arabidopsis Proteins

KW - Dealkylation

KW - Feedback, Physiological

KW - Flowers

KW - Gene Expression Regulation, Plant

KW - Histones

KW - MADS Domain Proteins

KW - Mutation

KW - RNA Splicing

KW - RNA, Antisense

KW - RNA, Long Noncoding

KW - RNA-Binding Proteins

KW - Seedlings

KW - Time Factors

KW - Transcription, Genetic

KW - Journal Article

KW - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

U2 - 10.1016/j.molcel.2014.03.026

DO - 10.1016/j.molcel.2014.03.026

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 24725596

SN - 1097-2765

VL - 54

SP - 156

EP - 165

JO - Molecular Cell

JF - Molecular Cell

IS - 1

ER -