Splice Site Strength-Dependent Activity and Genetic Buffering by Poly-G Runs

Pre-mRNA splicing is regulated through combinatorial activity of RNA motifs including splice sites and splicing regulatory elements (SREs). Here, we show that the activity of the G-run class of SREs is ∼4-fold higher when adjacent to intermediate strength 5'ss relative to weak 5'ss, and ∼1.3-fold higher relative to strong 5'ss. This dependence on 5'ss strength was observed in splicing reporters and in global microarray and mRNA-Seq analyses of splicing changes following RNAi against heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNP) H, which crosslinked to G-runs adjacent to many regulated exons. An exon’s responsiveness to changes in hnRNP H levels therefore depends in a complex way on G-run abundance and 5'ss strength, and other splicing factors may function similarly. This pattern of activity enables G-runs and hnRNP H to buffer the effects of 5'ss mutations, augmenting the frequency of 5'ss polymorphism and the evolution of new splicing patterns.