TDP-43 condensation properties specify its RNA-binding and regulatory repertoire.

Hallegger M., Chakrabarti AM., Lee FCY., Lee BL., Amalietti AG., Odeh HM., Copley KE., Rubien JD., Portz B., Kuret K., Huppertz I., Rau F., Patani R., Fawzi NL., Shorter J., Luscombe NM., Ule J.

Mutations causing amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) often affect the condensation properties of RNA-binding proteins (RBPs). However, the role of RBP condensation in the specificity and function of protein-RNA complexes remains unclear. We created a series of TDP-43 C-terminal domain (CTD) variants that exhibited a gradient of low to high condensation propensity, as observed in vitro and by nuclear mobility and foci formation. Notably, a capacity for condensation was required for efficient TDP-43 assembly on subsets of RNA-binding regions, which contain unusually long clusters of motifs of characteristic types and density. These "binding-region condensates" are promoted by homomeric CTD-driven interactions and required for efficient regulation of a subset of bound transcripts, including autoregulation of TDP-43 mRNA. We establish that RBP condensation can occur in a binding-region-specific manner to selectively modulate transcriptome-wide RNA regulation, which has implications for remodeling RNA networks in the context of signaling, disease, and evolution.

DOI

10.1016/j.cell.2021.07.018

Type

Journal article

Journal

Cell

Publication Date

09/2021

Volume

184

Pages

4680 - 4696.e22

Addresses

The Francis Crick Institute, 1 Midland Road, London NW1 1AT, UK; Department of Neuromuscular Diseases, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK. Electronic address: martina.hallegger@crick.ac.uk.

Keywords

Hela Cells, Cell Nucleus, Humans, RNA-Binding Proteins, DNA-Binding Proteins, RNA, RNA, Messenger, 3' Untranslated Regions, Poly A, Sequence Deletion, Base Sequence, Protein Binding, Homeostasis, Mutation, Point Mutation, Phase Transition, Protein Multimerization, HEK293 Cells, Nucleotide Motifs

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