The Concentration of B52, an Essential Splicing Factor and Regulator of Splice Site Choice in Vitro, is Critical for Drosophila Development

B52 is a Drosophila melanogaster protein that plays a role in general and alternative splicing in vitro. It is homologous to the human splicing factor ASF/SF2 which is essential for an early step(s) in spliceosome assembly in vitro and also regulates 5' and 3' alternative splice site choice in a concentration-dependent manner. In vitro, B52 can function as both a general splicing factor and a regulator of 5' alternative splice site choice. Its activity in vivo, however, is largely uncharacterized. In this study, we have further characterized B52 in vivo. Using Western blot (immunoblot) analysis and whole-mount immunofluorescence, we demonstrate that B52 is widely expressed throughout development, although some developmental stages and tissues appear to have higher B52 levels than others do. In particular, B52 accumulates in ovaries, where it is packaged into the developing egg and is localized to nuclei by the late blastoderm stage of embryonic development. We also overexpressed this protein in transgenic flies in a variety of developmental and tissue-specific patterns to examine the effects of altering the concentration of this splicing factor in vivo. We show that, in many cell types, changing the concentration of B52 adversely affects the development of the organism. We discuss the significance of these observations with regard to previous in vitro results.