Open AccessDrosophila Prp40 localizes to the histone locus body and regulates gene transcription and development
Author(s) -
Silvia Prieto-Sánchez,
Cristina Moreno-Castro,
Cristina Hernández-Munaín,
Carlos Suñé
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of cell science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.384
H-Index - 278
eISSN - 1477-9137
pISSN - 0021-9533
DOI - 10.1242/jcs.239509
Subject(s) - biology , histone , chromatin , microbiology and biotechnology , histone h4 , transcription (linguistics) , histone h3 , schneider 2 cells , histone code , transcription factor , gene , genetics , nucleosome , rna interference , rna , linguistics , philosophy
In eukaryotes, a large amount of histones must be synthesized during the S phase of the cell cycle to package newly synthesized DNA into chromatin. The transcription and 3’ end processing of histone pre-mRNA are controlled by the histone locus body (HLB), which is assembled in the H3/H4 promoter. Here, we identified the Drosophila Prp40 pre-mRNA processing factor (dPrp40) as a novel HLB component. We showed that dPrp40 is essential for Drosophila development, with functionally conserved activity in vertebrates and invertebrates. We observed that dPrp40 is fundamental in endocycling cells, highlighting a role for this factor in mediating replication efficiency in vivo. The depletion of dPrp40 from fly cells inhibited the transcription but not the 3’ end processing of histone mRNA in a H3/H4 promoter-dependent manner. Our results establish that dPrp40 is an essential gene for Drosophila development that can localize to the HLB and may participate in histone mRNA biosynthesis.