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The position of premature termination codons in the hepatocyte nuclear factor −1 beta gene determines susceptibility to nonsense-mediated decay

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Abstract

The nonsense-mediated decay (NMD) pathway is an mRNA surveillance mechanism that detects and degrades transcripts containing premature termination codons. The position of a truncating mutation can govern the resulting phenotype as mutations in the last exon evade NMD. In this study we investigated the susceptibility to NMD of six truncating HNF-1beta mutations by allele-specific quantitative real-time PCR using transformed lymphoblastoid cell lines. Four of six mutations (R181X, Q243fsdelC, P328L329fsdelCCTCT and A373fsdel29) showed evidence of NMD with levels of mutant transcript at 71% (p=0.009), 24% (p=0.008), 22% (p=0.008) and 3% (p=0.016) of the wild-type allele respectively. Comparable results were derived from lymphoblastoid cells and renal tubule cells isolated from a patient’s overnight urine confirming that cell lines provide a good model for mRNA analysis. Two mutations (H69fsdelAC and P159fsdelT) produced transcripts unexpectedly immune to NMD. We conclude that truncating mutant transcripts of the HNF-1beta gene do not conform to the known rules governing NMD susceptibility, but instead demonstrate a previously unreported 5′ to 3′ polarity. We hypothesise that this may be due to reinitiation of translation downstream of the premature termination codon. Our study suggests that reinitiation of translation may be an important mechanism in the evasion of NMD, but that other factors such as the distance from the native initiation codon may also play a part.

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Abbreviations

CHX:

Cycloheximide

DMSO:

dimethyl sulphoxide

ESE:

exon splicing enhancer

ESS:

Exon splicing silencer

GCKD:

glomerulocystic kidney disease

HNF-1β:

Hepatocyte nuclear factor-1 beta

ISE:

intron splicing enhancer

ISS:

intron splicing silencer

MODY:

Maturity-onset diabetes of the young

NMD:

Nonsense-mediated decay

PBS:

phosphate buffered saline

PTC:

premature termination codon

RCAD:

Renal cysts and diabetes syndrome

RT-PCR:

Reverse transcription PCR

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Acknowledgements

We are very grateful to Professor Gerhart Ryffel for his constructive discussion of the concepts detailed in this paper. We would like to thank Lisa Allen for sequencing the A373fsdel29 mutation. We thank the Wellcome trust, Diabetes UK, the National Kidney Research Fund (Grant TF13/ 2000), the European Union (Contract number QLG-CT-1999–00546 [GIFT]) and the Royal Devon & Exeter NHS Foundation Trust R &D directorate for financial support. ATH is a Wellcome Trust research leave fellow and CB is a NKRF clinical research fellow. The European Collection of Cell Cultures (ECACC) kindly provided the cell lines.

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  1. Sian Ellard

    Present address: Department of Molecular Genetics, Royal Devon & Exeter NHS Foundation Trust, Barrack Road, Exeter, EX2 5DW, UK

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, Peninsula Medical School, Barrack Road, Exeter, UK

    L. W. Harries, Coralie Bingham, A. T. Hattersley & Sian Ellard

  2. Hôpital St Antoine, Service de Cytogènétique, 184, rue du Faubourg St Antoine, 75012, Paris, France

    Christine Bellanne-Chantelot

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  1. L. W. Harries
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Harries, L.W., Bingham, C., Bellanne-Chantelot, C. et al. The position of premature termination codons in the hepatocyte nuclear factor −1 beta gene determines susceptibility to nonsense-mediated decay. Hum Genet 118, 214–224 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00439-005-0023-y

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