Accurate gene expression requires the precise control of mRNA levels, which are determined by the relative rates of nuclear (pre-)mRNA synthesis and processing, and cytoplasmic mRNA turnover. A key step in mRNA degradation is the removal of the poly(A) tail, which involves several deadenylases including components of the Ccr4 -Not complex. Here, we focused on the role of the human paralogues CNOT7 (hCaf1/Caf1a) and CNOT8 (hPop2/Caf1b/Calif), which possess deadenylase activity mediated by DEDD nuclease domains. We show that efficient proliferation requires both subunits, although combined knockdown of CNOT7 and CNOT8 further reduces cell proliferation indicating partial redundancy between these proteins. Interestingly, the function of CNOT7 in cell proliferation partly depends on its catalytic activity. On the other hand, the interaction between CNOT7 and BTG2, a member of the antiproliferative BTG/Tob family involved in transcription and mRNA decay appears less important for proliferation of MCF7 cells, suggesting that CNOT7 does not function solely in conjunction with BTG2. Further analysis of gene expression profiles of CNOT7 and/or CNOT8 knockdown cells underscores the partial redundancy between these subunits and suggests that regulation of several genes, including repression of the antiproliferative genes MSMB and PMP22, by the Ccr4 -Not complex contributes to cell proliferation.
INTRODUCTIONAccurate gene expression requires the precise control of mRNA levels that are determined by the relative rates of (pre-)mRNA synthesis and processing, and by mRNA turnover. Degradation of eukaryotic mRNA is initiated by the shortening and removal of the poly(A) tail by at least two different complexes containing distinct deadenylase subunits (Parker and Song, 2004;Garneau et al., 2007;Goldstrohm and Wickens, 2008). In both yeast and human cells, initial shortening of the poly(A) tail is carried out by Pan2, which forms a heterodimer with Pan3 (Brown et al., 1996;Boeck et al., 1998;Brown and Sachs, 1998;Uchida et al., 2004). Subsequent removal of poly(A) residues is achieved by Ccr4 -Not, a conserved complex, which contains about 10 subunits, including several deadenylase components (Tucker et al., 2001;Temme et al., 2004;Yamashita et al., 2005). The yeast Ccr4 protein and its human orthologues CNOT6 (hCcr4/Ccr4a) and CNOT6L (hCcr4-like/Ccr4b) contain an exonuclease/endonuclease/ phosphatase (EEP) domain that is responsible for the RNA nuclease activity (Dupressoir et al., 2001;Chen et al., 2002;Tucker et al., 2002;Morita et al., 2007). In addition, these proteins interact via leucine-rich motifs with yeast Caf1 (Pop2) or its human orthologues CNOT7 (hCaf1/Caf1a) and CNOT8 (hPop2/Caf1b/Calif), which contain RNA nuclease activities attributed to DEDD domains (Daugeron et al., 2001;Dupressoir et al., 2001;Clark et al., 2004;Viswanathan et al., 2004;Bianchin et al., 2005). The CNOT7 and CNOT8 proteins interact with members of the BTG/Tob family of antiproliferative proteins, which are implicated in mRNA turnover (Ezzeddine ...