Coilin-dependent SnRNP Assembly is Essential for Zebrafish Embryogenesis

Overview

Journal Nat Struct Mol Biol

Specialties Cell Biology
Molecular Biology

Date 2010 Apr 2

PMID 20357773

Citations 100

Authors

Magdalena Strzelecka

Simon Trowitzsch

Gert Weber

Reinhard Luhrmann

Andrew C Oates

Karla M Neugebauer

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Spliceosomal small nuclear ribonucleoproteins (snRNPs), comprised of small nuclear RNAs (snRNAs) in complex with snRNP-specific proteins, are essential for pre-mRNA splicing. Coilin is not a snRNP protein but concentrates snRNPs and their assembly intermediates in Cajal bodies (CBs). Here we show that depletion of coilin in zebrafish embryos leads to CB dispersal, deficits in snRNP biogenesis and expression of spliced mRNA, as well as reduced cell proliferation followed by developmental arrest. Notably, injection of purified mature human snRNPs restored mRNA expression and viability. snRNAs were necessary but not sufficient for rescue, showing that only assembled snRNPs can bypass the requirement for coilin. Thus, coilin's essential function in embryos is to promote macromolecular assembly of snRNPs, likely by concentrating snRNP components in CBs to overcome rate-limiting assembly steps.

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