Abstract

Transformer 2β1 (Tra2β1) is a splicing effector protein composed of a core RNA recognition motif flanked by two arginine-serine-rich (RS) domains, RS1 and RS2. Although Tra2β1-dependent splicing is regulated by phosphorylation, very little is known about how protein kinases phosphorylate these two RS domains. We now show that the serine-arginine protein kinase-1 (SRPK1) is a regulator of Tra2β1 and promotes exon inclusion in the survival motor neuron gene 2 (SMN2). To understand how SRPK1 phosphorylates this splicing factor, we performed mass spectrometric and kinetic experiments. We found that SRPK1 specifically phosphorylates 21 serines in RS1, a process facilitated by a docking groove in the kinase domain. Although SRPK1 readily phosphorylates RS2 in a splice variant lacking the N-terminal RS domain (Tra2β3), RS1 blocks phosphorylation of these serines in the full-length Tra2β1. Thus, RS2 serves two new functions. First, RS2 positively regulates binding of the central RNA recognition motif to an exonic splicing enhancer sequence, a phenomenon reversed by SRPK1 phosphorylation on RS1. Second, RS2 enhances ligand exchange in the SRPK1 active site allowing highly efficient Tra2β1 phosphorylation. These studies demonstrate that SRPK1 is a regulator of Tra2β1 splicing function and that the individual RS domains engage in considerable cross-talk, assuming novel functions with regard to RNA binding, splicing, and SRPK1 catalysis.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-10-2015

Notes/Citation Information

Published in The Journal of Biological Chemistry, v. 290, no. 28, p. 17269-17281.

This research was originally published in The Journal of Biological Chemistry. Michael A. Jamros, Brandon E. Aubol, Malik M. Keshwani, Zhaiyi Zhang, Stefan Stamm, and Joseph A. Adams. Intra-domain Cross-talk Regulates Serine-arginine Protein Kinase 1-dependent Phosphorylation and Splicing Function of Transformer 2β1. The Journal of Biological Chemistry. 2015; 290:17269-17281. © the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

The copyright holder has granted the permission for posting the article here.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.M115.656579

Funding Information

This work was supported, in whole or in part, by National Institutes of Health Grants RO1 GM067969 (to J. A. A.) and a supplement to GM067969. The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest with the contents of this article.

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