Open AccessDNA Damage Regulates Alternative Splicing through Inhibition of RNA Polymerase II Elongation
Author(s) -
Manuel J. Muñoz,
Soledad Perez-Santángelo,
Maria Paola Paronetto,
Manuel de la Mata,
Federico Pelisch,
Stéphanie Boireau,
Kira Glover-Cutter,
Claudia Ben-Dov,
Matı́as Blaustein,
Juan José Lozano,
Gregory Bird,
David L. Bentley,
Édouard Bertrand,
Alberto R. Kornblihtt
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
cell
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 26.304
H-Index - 776
eISSN - 1097-4172
pISSN - 0092-8674
DOI - 10.1016/j.cell.2009.03.010
Subject(s) - biology , dna damage , rna polymerase ii , rna splicing , mutant , microbiology and biotechnology , alternative splicing , gene expression , dna repair , gene , dna , rna , genetics , messenger rna , promoter
DNA damage induces apoptosis and many apoptotic genes are regulated via alternative splicing (AS), but little is known about the control mechanisms. Here we show that ultraviolet irradiation (UV) affects cotranscriptional AS in a p53-independent way, through the hyperphosphorylation of RNA polymerase II carboxy-terminal domain (CTD) and a subsequent inhibition of transcriptional elongation, estimated in vivo and in real time. Phosphomimetic CTD mutants not only display lower elongation but also duplicate the UV effect on AS. Consistently, nonphosphorylatable mutants prevent the UV effect. Apoptosis promoted by UV in cells lacking p53 is prevented when the change in AS of the apoptotic gene bcl-x is reverted, confirming the relevance of this mechanism. Splicing-sensitive microarrays revealed a significant overlap of the subsets of genes that have changed AS with UV and those that have reduced expression, suggesting that transcriptional coupling to AS is a key feature of the DNA-damage response.
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