Drosophila RNP-4F is a highly conserved protein from yeast to human and functions as a spliceosome assembly factor during pre-mRNA splicing. Two major developmentally regulated rnp-4f mRNA isoforms have been described during fly development, designated "long" and "short," differing by a 177-nt tract in the 5'-UTR. This region potentially folds into a single long stable stem-loop by pairing of intron 0 and part of exon 2. Since the coding potential for the two isoforms is identical, the interesting question arises as to the functional significance of this evolutionarily-conserved 5'-UTR feature. Here we describe the effects of wild-type and mutated stem-loop on modulation of rnp-4f gene expression in embryos using a GFP reporter assay. In this work, a new GFP expression vector designated pUAS-Neostinger was constructed. The UAS-GAL4 system was utilized to trigger GFP expression using tissue-specific promoter driver fly lines. Fluorescence microscopy visualization, Western blotting and real-time qRT-PÇR were used to study and quantify GFP reporter protein and mRNA levels. A significant increase in GFP reporter protein expression due to presence of the wild-type stem-loop sequence/structure was unexpectedly observed with no concomitant increase in GFP reporter mRNA levels, showing that the 177-nt region enhancement acts posttranscriptionally. The effects of potential cis-acting elements within the stem-loop were evaluated using the reporter assay in two mutant constructs. Results of GFP reporter over-expression show that RNP-4F translational regulation is highly sensitive in the developing fly central nervous system. The potential molecular mechanism behind the observed translational enhancement is discussed.
Keywords: 3′-UTR; 3′-untranslated mRNA region; 5′-UTR; 5′-untranslated mRNA region; Alternative splicing; CNS; DNA complementary to RNA; Drosophila adenosine deaminase acting on RNA; GFP; GFP reporter; IRES; PCR; Posttranscriptional regulation; RNP-4F; RT-PCR; U-series small nuclear ribonucleoprotein; U-snRNP; base pair; bp; cDNA; central nervous system; dADAR; green fluorescent protein; internal ribosomal entry site; mRNA; messenger RNA; nt; nucleotide; polymerase chain reaction; reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction; ribonucleoprotein encoded by rnp-4f gene in polytene band 4F; rnp-4f gene.
© 2013.