Nucleic acids research
-
Nucleic acids research · Sep 2008
The G-quartet containing FMRP binding site in FMR1 mRNA is a potent exonic splicing enhancer.
The fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP) is a RNA-binding protein proposed to post-transcriptionally regulate the expression of genes important for neuronal development and synaptic plasticity. We previously demonstrated that FMRP binds to its own FMR1 mRNA via a guanine-quartet (G-quartet) RNA motif. However, the functional effect of this binding on FMR1 expression was not established. ⋯ We show instead that the FBS is a potent exonic splicing enhancer in a minigene system. Furthermore, FMR1 alternative splicing is affected by the intracellular level of FMRP. These data suggest that the G-quartet motif present in the FMR1 mRNA can act as a control element of its alternative splicing in a negative autoregulatory loop.