Human Cancer-Associated Mutations of SF3B1 Lead to a Splicing Modification of Its Own RNA

Deregulation of pre-mRNA splicing is observed in many cancers and hematological malignancies. Genes encoding splicing factors are frequently mutated in myelodysplastic syndromes, in which SF3B1 mutations are the most frequent. SF3B1 is an essential component of the U2 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein particle that interacts with branch point sequences close to the 3’ splice site during pre-mRNA splicing. SF3B1 mutations mostly lead to substitutions at restricted sites in the highly conserved HEAT domain, causing a modification of its function. We found that SF3B1 was aberrantly spliced in various neoplasms carrying an SF3B1 mutation, by exploring publicly available RNA sequencing raw data. We aimed to characterize this novel SF3B1 transcript, which is expected to encode a protein with an insertion of eight amino acids in the H3 repeat of the HEAT domain. We investigated the splicing proficiency of this SF3B1 protein isoform, in association with the most frequent mutation (K700E), through functional complementation assays in two myeloid cell lines stably expressing distinct SF3B1 variants. The yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe was also used as an alternative model. Insertion of these eight amino acids in wild-type or mutant SF3B1 (K700E) abolished SF3B1 essential function, highlighting the crucial role of the H3 repeat in the splicing function of SF3B1.