Genetics and Genomics Commons^™

A Regulator Of Dscam Mutually Exclusive Splicing Fidelity, Sara Olson, Yiannis Savva, Jung Park, Brenton R. Graveley

UCHC Articles - Research

The Down syndrome cell adhesion molecule (Dscam) gene has essential roles in neural wiring and pathogen recognition in Drosophila melanogaster. Dscam encodes 38,016 distinct isoforms via extensive alternative splicing. The 95 alternative exons in Dscam are organized into clusters that are spliced in a mutually exclusive manner. The exon 6 cluster contains 48 variable exons and uses a complex system of competing RNA structures to ensure that only one variable exon is included. Here we show that the heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein hrp36 acts specifically within, and throughout, the exon 6 cluster to prevent the inclusion of multiple exons. Moreover, hrp36 …