1. Widespread Transcriptional Readthrough Caused by Nab2 Depletion Leads to Chimeric Transcripts with Retained Introns
- Author
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Fernando Carrillo Oesterreich, Korinna Straube, Lydia Herzel, Karla M. Neugebauer, and Tara Alpert
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,NAB2 ,biology ,Transcription, Genetic ,Transcriptional readthrough ,Intron ,RNA ,RNA polymerase II ,Chimerism ,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology ,Introns ,Article ,Cell biology ,Machine Learning ,Repressor Proteins ,03 medical and health sciences ,030104 developmental biology ,0302 clinical medicine ,Transcription (biology) ,RNA splicing ,biology.protein ,Humans ,Gene ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery - Abstract
Nascent RNA sequencing has revealed that pre-mRNA splicing can occur shortly after introns emerge from RNA polymerase II (RNA Pol II). Differences in co-transcriptional splicing profiles suggest regulation by cis- and/or trans-acting factors. Here, we use single-molecule intron tracking (SMIT) to identify a cohort of regulators by machine learning in budding yeast. Of these, Nab2 displays reduced co-transcriptional splicing when depleted. Unexpectedly, these splicing defects are attributable to aberrant "intrusive" transcriptional readthrough from upstream genes, as revealed by long-read sequencing. Transcripts that originate from the intron-containing gene's own transcription start site (TSS) are efficiently spliced, indicating no direct role of Nab2 in splicing per se. This work highlights the coupling between transcription, splicing, and 3' end formation in the context of gene organization along chromosomes. We conclude that Nab2 is required for proper 3' end processing, which ensures gene-specific control of co-transcriptional RNA processing.
- Published
- 2020