Deep intronic mutations are often ignored as possible causes of human diseases. A deep intronic mutation in the MTRR gene, c.903+469T>C, is the most frequent mutation causing the cblE type of homocystinuria. It is well known to be associated with pre-mRNA mis-splicing, resulting in pseudoexon inclusion; however, the pathological mechanism remains unknown. We used minigenes to demonstrate that this mutation is the direct cause of MTRR pseudoexon inclusion, and that the pseudoexon is normally not recognized due to a suboptimal 5' splice site. Within the pseudoexon we identified an exonic splicing enhancer (ESE), which is activated by the mutation. Cotransfection and siRNA experiments showed that pseudoexon inclusion depends on the cellular amounts of SF2/ASF and in vitro RNA-binding assays showed dramatically increased SF2/ASF binding to the mutant MTRR ESE. The mutant MTRR ESE sequence is identical to an ESE of the alternatively spliced MST1R proto-oncogene, which suggests that this ESE could be frequently involved in splicing regulation. Our study conclusively demonstrates that an intronic single nucleotide change is sufficient to cause pseudoexon activation via creation of a functional ESE, which binds a specific splicing factor. We suggest that this mechanism may cause genetic disease much more frequently than previously reported.

• MeSH
• Cercopithecus aethiops MeSH
• COS buňky MeSH
• exony genetika   MeSH
• ferredoxin-NADP-reduktasa genetika   MeSH
• homocystinurie klasifikace   enzymologie   genetika   MeSH
• introny genetika   MeSH
• jaderné proteiny metabolismus   MeSH
• messenger RNA genetika   metabolismus   MeSH
• místa sestřihu RNA genetika   MeSH
• molekulární sekvence - údaje MeSH
• mutace genetika   MeSH
• mutantní proteiny genetika   MeSH
• proteiny vázající RNA metabolismus   MeSH
• sekvence nukleotidů MeSH
• sestřih RNA genetika   MeSH
• vazba proteinů MeSH
• vitamin B 12 metabolismus   MeSH
• výpočetní biologie MeSH
• zesilovače transkripce genetika   MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Check Tag
• zvířata MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH