Identified a novel mechanism by which the spliceosome regulates plant development and adaptation to stress

The group of Prof. Julio Salinas at Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas (CSIC) has recently demonstrated that the core components of the spliceosome control plant development and adaptation to abiotic stress conditions by providing spliceosome activity specificity. These findings have been published in The Plant Cell as the result of an international collaboration with researchers from Centro de Biotecnología y Genómica de Plantas (UPM-INIA, Spain) and Institute Jean-Pierre Bourgin (France).

Most eukaryotic genes contain regions named introns in their coding sequences that need to be removed from their precursor messenger RNAs –the transmitters of genetic information- in order to become functional transcripts. Intron removing is mainly carried out by a multimegadalton ribonucleoprotein, the spliceosome, in a reaction known as splicing. How the function and specificity of this essential molecular machine is regulated still remains poorly understood and the work of Huertas et al. sheds new light on the relevance of the regulation of eukaryotic spliceosome activity.

The researchers have found that the protein SME1, a spliceosome core component, has a key role in shaping different stimuli-specific splicing patterns, which, in turn, determine plant development and response to adverse environments. Indeed, they show that, depending on the environmental conditions, SME1 is required for the correct splicing of a reduced number of specific genes involved in Arabidopsis development and adaptation to abiotic stress situations.

These findings support the idea that, contrary to what was generally assumed, in addition of having a structural function, spliceosome core components provide functional specificity to the spliceosome. Furthermore, they indicate that this specificity is determined by the environmental conditions, and that it is critical for correct development and adaptation of plants to their surroundings.

Reference: Arabidopsis SME1 Regulates Plant Development and Response to Abiotic Stress by Determining Spliceosome Activity Specificity. Raúl Huertas, Rafael Catalá, José M. Jiménez-Gómez, M. Mar Castellano, Pedro Crevillén, Manuel Piñeiro, José A. Jarillo and Julio Salinas. The Plant Cell (2019) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.18.00689

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CSIC Press Release (in spanish)