Lots of splicing regulators
Researchers nearly triple number of known alternative regulators in
Drosophila
By Charles Choi

Researchers report in the online edition of PNAS this week that they have
discovered nearly 30 alternative splicing regulators in Drosophila-nearly
triple the number previously known-using a novel RNA interference (RNAi)
screen.

"Most people in the splicing regulation field, including myself, have
thought that splicing is regulated by RNA binding proteins that are not
components of the spliceosome and that they do so by binding to the RNA
where they either enhance or prevent the spliceosome from recognizing the
regulated exon. The implications of our findings are that alternative
splicing does not need to be regulated by these auxiliary proteins," author
Brenton Graveley at the University of Connecticut Health Center in
Farmington told The Scientist. "This does not mean that splicing is not
regulated by auxiliary splicing factors, but rather seems to be a previously
unrealized mechanism by which splicing can be regulated."

Alternative splicing, which generates multiple mRNAs from a single pre-mRNA
by joining exons together in different patterns, is thought to be regulated
by nonspliceosomal RNA binding proteins that modulate the association of
core components of the spliceosome with the pre-mRNA. While genome
sequencing projects have revealed how widespread alternative splicing is
across many organisms-74% of human genes and 50% of fly genes encode
alternatively spliced mRNAs-Graveley was "mystified" about how few
alternative splicing regulators were known, noting only about 15 identified
so far in Drosophila and only a few more in humans.

Full Text at TheScientist.com
http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20041019/01

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