Journal
GENES & DEVELOPMENT
Volume 32, Issue 15-16, Pages 1045-1059Publisher
COLD SPRING HARBOR LAB PRESS, PUBLICATIONS DEPT
DOI: 10.1101/gad.316059.118
Keywords
spinal muscular atrophy (SMA); survival motor neuron (SMN); small nuclear ribonucleoprotein (snRNP); p53; Mdm2; Mdm4
Categories
Funding
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke [R01NS069601, R01NS102451, R01NS078375]
- U.S. Department of Defense [GR.10235006]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Ubiquitous deficiency in the survival motor neuron (SMN) protein causes death of motor neurons-a hallmark of the neurodegenerative disease spinal muscular atrophy (SMA)-through poorly understood mechanisms. Here, we show that the function of SMN in the assembly of spliceosomal small nuclear ribonucleoproteins (snRNPs) regulates alternative splicing of Mdm2 and Mdm4, two nonredundant repressors of p53. Decreased inclusion of critical Mdm2 and Mdm4 exons is most prominent in SMA motor neurons and correlates with both snRNP reduction and p53 activation in vivo. Importantly, increased skipping of Mdm2 and Mdm4 exons regulated by SMN is necessary and sufficient to synergistically elicit robust p53 activation in wild-type mice. Conversely, restoration of full-length Mdm2 and Mdm4 suppresses p53 induction and motor neuron degeneration in SMA mice. These findings reveal that loss of SMN-dependent regulation of Mdm2 and Mdm4 alternative splicing underlies p53-mediated death of motor neurons in SMA, establishing a causal link between snRNP dysfunction and neurodegeneration.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available