Genetics, Vol. 167, 1689-1696, August 2004, Copyright © 2004
doi:10.1534/genetics.104.028746

Genetic Suppression of Intronic +1G Mutations by Compensatory U1 snRNA Changes in Caenorhabditis elegans

Alan M. Zahler*,{dagger},1, John D. Tuttle{dagger},2 and Andrew D. Chisholm{dagger}

{dagger} Department of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology
* Center for Molecular Biology of RNA, University of California, Santa Cruz, California 95064

1 Corresponding author: Department of MCD Biology and Center for Molecular Biology of RNA, Sinsheimer Laboratories, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064.
E-mail: zahler{at}biology.ucsc.edu

Mutations to the canonical +1G of introns, which are commonly found in many human inherited disease alleles, invariably result in aberrant splicing. Here we report genetic findings in C. elegans that aberrant splicing due to +1G mutations can be suppressed by U1 snRNA mutations. An intronic +1G-to-U mutation, e936, in the C. elegans unc-73 gene causes aberrant splicing and loss of gene function. We previously showed that mutation of the sup-39 gene promotes splicing at the mutant splice donor in e936 mutants. We demonstrate here that sup-39 is a U1 snRNA gene; suppressor mutations in sup-39 are compensatory substitutions in the 5' end, which enhance recognition of the mutant splice donor. sup-6(st19) is an allele-specific suppressor of unc-13(e309), which contains an intronic +1G-to-A transition. The e309 mutation activates a cryptic splice site, and sup-6(st19) restores splicing to the mutant splice donor. sup-6 also encodes a U1 snRNA and the mutant contains a compensatory substitution at its 5' end. This is the first demonstration that U1 snRNAs can act to suppress the effects of mutations to the invariant +1G of introns. These findings are suggestive of a potential treatment of certain alleles of inherited human genetic diseases.