Novel roles of PTCs-containing ultraconserved exons in cancer cell growth

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K15294
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Gastroenterology
• Research Institution: The University of Tokushima
• Principal Investigator: KUWANO Yuki 徳島大学, 大学院医歯薬学研究部(医学系), 助教 (00563454)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 非コードRNA / 中途ストップコドン / RNA結合タンパク質 / 大腸がん

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Alternative splicing of pre-mRNAs generates protein diversity from a limited number of genes.Alternative splicing occurs in a developmental stage-, sex- or tissue-specific manner and in response to the surrounding microenvironment.At the same time, aberrant alternative splicing participates in many genetic and acquired diseases including cancer.
Serine/Arginine splicing factors (SRSFs) family genes contain ultraconserved regions. Several SRSFs generate transcripts which contain pre-mature termination codons (PTCs).Interestingly, these transcripts are not degradiated by NMD in colon cancer cells. The aberrant expression of T-UCRs is posttranscriptionally regulated by miRNA and RNA-binding proteins.
In this study, we show that a nuclear protein, nucleolin regulates nuclear localization of T-UCRs in colon cancer cells.

Free Research Field

分子生物学