title: SKIP Confers Osmotic Tolerance during Salt Stress by Controlling Alternative Gene Splicing in Arabidopsis.
abstract: Deciphering the mechanisms underlying plant responses to abiotic stress is key for improving plant stress resistance. Much is known about the regulation of gene expression in response to salt stress at the transcriptional level; however, little is known about this process at the posttranscriptional level. Recently, we demonstrated that SKIP is a component of spliceosome that interacts with clock gene pre-mRNAs and is essential for regulating their alternative splicing and mRNA maturation. In this study, we found that skip-1 plants are hypersensitive to both salt and osmotic stresses, and that SKIP is required for the alternative splicing and mRNA maturation of several salt-tolerance genes, including NHX1, CBL1, P5CS1, RCI2A, and PAT10. A genome-wide analysis revealed that SKIP mediates the alternative splicing of many genes under salt-stress conditions, and that most of the alternative splicing events in skip-1 involve intron retention and can generate a premature termination codon in the transcribed mRNA. SKIP also controls alternative splicing by modulating the recognition or cleavage of 5' and 3' splice donor and acceptor sites under salt-stress conditions. Therefore, this study addresses the fundamental question of how the mRNA splicing machinery in plants contributes to salt-stress responses at the posttranscriptional level, and provides a link between alternative splicing and salt tolerance.
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei 050021, China; College of Life Sciences, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China.
authors.forename: Jinlin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei 050021, China.
authors.forename: Jingjing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei 050021, China; College of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
authors.forename: Zhaoxu
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei 050021, China.
authors.forename: Yaru
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China.
authors.forename: Junya
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei 050021, China.
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei 050021, China.
authors.forename: Shuning
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei 050021, China.
authors.forename: Wenjiao
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
authors.forename: Hang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China. Electronic address: ligeng.ma@cnu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Ligeng
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei 050021, China. Electronic address: zhenggezhu@126.com.
authors.forename: Zhengge
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhu
mesh_terms: D017398:Alternative Splicing / Q000187:drug effects; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D001483:Base Sequence; D018745:Genome, Plant / Q000235:genetics; D009154:Mutation; D009997:Osmotic Pressure / Q000187:drug effects*; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics; D012965:Sodium Chloride / Q000494:pharmacology*; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger; C549998:SKIP protein, Arabidopsis; D014157:Transcription Factors; D012965:Sodium Chloride
keywords: SKIP; alternative splicing; osmotic tolerance; posttranscriptional regulation; salt response