Antagonistic factors control the unproductive splicing of SC35 terminal intron

International audienceAlternative splicing is regulated in part by variations in the relative concentrations of a variety of factors, including serine/arginine-rich (SR) proteins. The SR protein SC35 self-regulates its expression by stimulating unproductive splicing events in the 3 0 untranslated region of its own pre-mRNA. Using various minigene constructs containing the terminal retained intron and flanking exons, we identified in the highly conserved last exon a number of exonic splicing enhancer elements responding specifically to SC35, and showed an inverse correlation between affinity of SC35 and enhancer strength. The enhancer region, which is included in a long stem loop, also contains repressor elements, and is recognized by other RNA-binding proteins, notably hnRNP H protein and TAR DNA binding protein (TDP-43). Finally, in vitro and in cellulo experiments indicated that hnRNP H and TDP-43 antagonize the binding of SC35 to the terminal exon and specifically repress the use of SC35 terminal 3 0 splice site. Our study provides new information about the molecular mechanisms of SC35-mediated splicing activation. It also highlights the existence of a complex network of self-and cross-regulatory mechanisms between splicing regulators, which controls their homeostasis and offers many ways of modulating their concentration in response to the cellular environment