The RNA-binding protein QKI suppresses cancer-associated aberrant splicing.

Autor: Feng-Yang Zong, Xing Fu, Wen-Juan Wei, Ya-Ge Luo, Monika Heiner, Li-Juan Cao, Zhaoyuan Fang, Rong Fang, Daru Lu, Hongbin Ji, Jingyi Hui
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2014
Předmět:
Zdroj: PLoS Genetics, Vol 10, Iss 4, p e1004289 (2014)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 1553-7390
1553-7404
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1004289
Popis: Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Aberrant splicing has been implicated in lung tumorigenesis. However, the functional links between splicing regulation and lung cancer are not well understood. Here we identify the RNA-binding protein QKI as a key regulator of alternative splicing in lung cancer. We show that QKI is frequently down-regulated in lung cancer, and its down-regulation is significantly associated with a poorer prognosis. QKI-5 inhibits the proliferation and transformation of lung cancer cells both in vitro and in vivo. Our results demonstrate that QKI-5 regulates the alternative splicing of NUMB via binding to two RNA elements in its pre-mRNA, which in turn suppresses cell proliferation and prevents the activation of the Notch signaling pathway. We further show that QKI-5 inhibits splicing by selectively competing with a core splicing factor SF1 for binding to the branchpoint sequence. Taken together, our data reveal QKI as a critical regulator of splicing in lung cancer and suggest a novel tumor suppression mechanism involving QKI-mediated regulation of the Notch signaling pathway.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals