Recruitment of a splicing factor to the nuclear lamina for its inactivation.

Karen Vester, Marco Preußner, Nicole Holton, Suihan Feng, Carsten Schultz, Florian Heyd, Markus C Wahl

Communications biology 2022 Jul 22

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Precursor messenger RNA splicing is a highly regulated process, mediated by a complex RNA-protein machinery, the spliceosome, that encompasses several hundred proteins and five small nuclear RNAs in humans. Emerging evidence suggests that the spatial organization of splicing factors and their spatio-temporal dynamics participate in the regulation of splicing. So far, methods to manipulate the spatial distribution of splicing factors in a temporally defined manner in living cells are missing. Here, we describe such an approach that takes advantage of a reversible chemical dimerizer, and outline the requirements for efficient, reversible re-localization of splicing factors to selected sub-nuclear compartments. In a proof-of-principle study, the partial re-localization of the PRPF38A protein to the nuclear lamina in HEK293T cells induced a moderate increase in intron retention. Our approach allows fast and reversible re-localization of splicing factors, has few side effects and can be applied to many splicing factors by fusion of a protein tag through genome engineering. Apart from the systematic analysis of the spatio-temporal aspects of splicing regulation, the approach has a large potential for the fast induction and reversal of splicing switches and can reveal mechanisms of splicing regulation in native nuclear environments. © 2022. The Author(s).

Citation

Karen Vester, Marco Preußner, Nicole Holton, Suihan Feng, Carsten Schultz, Florian Heyd, Markus C Wahl. Recruitment of a splicing factor to the nuclear lamina for its inactivation. Communications biology. 2022 Jul 22;5(1):736