Mutations in the Caenorhabditis elegans U2AF large subunit UAF-1 alter the choice of a 3' splice site in vivo.

The removal of introns from eukaryotic RNA transcripts requires the activities of five multi-component ribonucleoprotein complexes and numerous associated proteins. The lack of mutations affecting splicing factors essential for animal survival has limited the study of the in vivo regulation of splicing. From a screen for suppressors of the Caenorhabditis elegans unc-93(e1500) rubberband Unc phenotype, we identified mutations in genes that encode the C. elegans orthologs of two splicing factors, the U2AF large subunit (UAF-1) and SF1/BBP (SFA-1). The uaf-1(n4588) mutation resulted in temperature-sensitive lethality and caused the unc-93 RNA transcript to be spliced using a cryptic 3' splice site generated by the unc-93(e1500) missense mutation. The sfa-1(n4562) mutation did not cause the utilization of this cryptic 3' splice site. We isolated four uaf-1(n4588) intragenic suppressors that restored the viability of uaf-1 mutants at 25 degrees C. These suppressors differentially affected the recognition of the cryptic 3' splice site and implicated a small region of UAF-1 between the U2AF small subunit-interaction domain and the first RNA recognition motif in affecting the choice of 3' splice site. We constructed a reporter for unc-93 splicing and using site-directed mutagenesis found that the position of the cryptic splice site affects its recognition. We also identified nucleotides of the endogenous 3' splice site important for recognition by wild-type UAF-1. Our genetic and molecular analyses suggested that the phenotypic suppression of the unc-93(e1500) Unc phenotype by uaf-1(n4588) and sfa-1(n4562) was likely caused by altered splicing of an unknown gene. Our observations provide in vivo evidence that UAF-1 can act in regulating 3' splice-site choice and establish a system that can be used to investigate the in vivo regulation of RNA splicing in C. elegans.

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