Arabidopsis ROOT INITIATION DEFECTIVE1, a DEAH-Box RNA Helicase Involved in Pre-mRNA Splicing, Is Essential for Plant Development

Abstract

ORCID ID: 0000-0001-5429-3310 (M.O.).Pre-mRNA splicing is a critical process in gene expression in eukaryotic cells. A multitude of proteins are known to be involved in pre-mRNA splicing in plants; however, the physiological roles of only some of these have been examined. Here, we investigated the developmental roles of a pre-mRNA splicing factor by analyzing root initiation defective1-1 (rid1-1), an Arabidopsis thaliana mutant previously shown to have severe defects in hypocotyl dedifferentiation and de novo meristem formation in tissue culture under high-temperature conditions. Phenotypic analysis in planta indicated that RID1 is differentially required during development and has roles in processes such as meristem maintenance, leaf morphogenesis, and root morphogenesis. RID1 was identified as encoding a DEAH-box RNA helicase implicated in pre-mRNA splicing. Transient expression analysis using intron-containing reporter genes showed that pre-mRNA splicing efficiency was affected by the rid1 mutation, which supported the presumed function of RID1 in pre-mRNA splicing. Our results collectively suggest that robust levels of pre-mRNA splicing are critical for several specific aspects of plant development.

A homolog of splicing factor SF1 is essential for development and is involved in the alternative splicing of pre‐mRNA in Arabidopsis thaliana

“…Loss-of-function mutations in the Arabidopsis homologs of some components of the PRP19 complex cause defects in plant innate immunity (Monaghan et al, 2009;Monaghan and Li, 2010). Other spliceosomal protein mutants in Arabidopsis are also known to result in developmental defects (Moll et al, 2008;Chung et al, 2009;Yagi et al, 2009;Zhang and Mount, 2009;Carvalho et al, 2010;Kim et al, 2010;Sugliani et al, 2010;Aki et al, 2011;Perea-Resa et al, 2012;Ohtani et al, 2013;Zhang et al, 2013).…”

CLUMSY VEIN, the Arabidopsis DEAH‐box Prp16 ortholog, is required for auxin‐mediated development

“…Loss-of-function Arabidopsis mutations in genes that encode components of snRNPs, U2 snRNP-specific proteins ATROPOS (ATO)/Prp9 (Moll et al, 2008) and SF3b130 (Aki et al, 2011), U5 snRNP-specific protein GAMETOPHYTIC FACTOR 1 (GFA1)/CLOTHO (CLO)/VAJRA (VAJ)/Snu114 (Coury et al, 2007;Moll et al, 2008;Yagi et al, 2009), and U4/U6 snRNP-specific protein LACHESIS (LIS)/Prp4 (Groß-Hardt et al, 2007;V€ olz et al, 2012), cause no or less genetic transmission through the female gametophyte. shoot redifferentiation defective 2 (srd2) mutant defective in expression of all the spliceosomal snRNAs (Ohtani and Sugiyama, 2005;Ohtani et al, 2008Ohtani et al, , 2010 and root initiation defective1 (rid1) mutants deficient in another spliceosomal DEAH-box RNA-dependent ATPase Prp22 (Ohtani et al, 2013) have similar defects in the female gametophyte. Less severe defects in male-gametophyte development are also seen in mutants of ATO, SF3b130, GFA1/CLO/VAJ and RID1, but not in SRD2.…”

“…In human, mutations in ubiquitously expressed genes encoding pre-mRNA splicing factors cause highly tissue-specific pathologies with no obvious phenotypes in other cell types (Mordes et al, 2006;Padgett, 2012). In Arabidopsis, evolutionarily conserved splicing factors influence alternative splicing (Sugliani et al, 2010;Ohtani et al, 2013). These facts imply that transcript-specific changes in splicing can occur when the activity of certain core component(s) of the spliceosome is modulated.…”

Post‐transcriptional regulation in root development

“…The authors could show that http://www.arabidopsis.org/servlets/TairObject?id=136721&type=locus is regulated spatially and temporally during development and that the rid1‐1 mutation affected only a subset of AS events. Therefore, control of AS in roots of still‐to‐be‐identified mRNAs rely on http://www.arabidopsis.org/servlets/TairObject?id=136721&type=locus and is critical for proper root development . Work from the same group provides evidence linking RNA processing to root growth.…”