The Survival of Motor Neuron Protein Acts as a Molecular Chaperone for mRNP Assembly.

Cell Rep

Department of Cell Biology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA; Center for Neurodegenerative Disease, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA; Laboratory of Translational Cell Biology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA. Electronic address:

Published: February 2017

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a motor neuron disease caused by reduced levels of the survival of motor neuron (SMN) protein. SMN is part of a multiprotein complex that facilitates the assembly of spliceosomal small nuclear ribonucleoproteins (snRNPs). SMN has also been found to associate with mRNA-binding proteins, but the nature of this association was unknown. Here, we have employed a combination of biochemical and advanced imaging methods to demonstrate that SMN promotes the molecular interaction between IMP1 protein and the 3' UTR zipcode region of β-actin mRNA, leading to assembly of messenger ribonucleoprotein (mRNP) complexes that associate with the cytoskeleton to facilitate trafficking. We have identified defects in mRNP assembly in cells and tissues from SMA disease models and patients that depend on the SMN Tudor domain and explain the observed deficiency in mRNA localization and local translation, providing insight into SMA pathogenesis as a ribonucleoprotein (RNP)-assembly disorder.

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5492976PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2017.01.059DOI Listing

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