Chtop (Chromatin target of Prmt1) auto-regulates its expression level via intron retention and nonsense-mediated decay of its own mRNA

Chtop (chromatin target of Prmt1) regulates various aspects of gene expression including transcription and mRNA export. Despite these important functions, the regulatory mechanism underlying Chtop expression remains undetermined. Using Chtop-expressing human cell lines, we demonstrate that Chtop expression is controlled via an autoregulatory negative feedback loop whereby Chtop binds its own mRNA to retain intron 2 during splicing; a premature termination codon present at the 5′ end of intron 2 leads to nonsense-mediated decay of the mRNA. We also show that Chtop interacts with exon 2 of Chtop mRNA via its arginine-glycine-rich (RG) domain, and with intron 2 via its N-terminal (N1) domain; both are required for retention of intron 2. In addition, we show that hnRNP H accelerates intron 2 splicing of Chtop mRNA in a manner dependent on Chtop expression level, suggesting that Chtop and hnRNP H regulate intron 2 retention of Chtop mRNA antagonistically. Thus, the present study provides a novel molecular mechanism by which mRNA and protein levels are constitutively regulated by intron retention.