Disease-associated mutation in SRSF2 misregulates splicing by altering RNA binding affinities

SRSF2 is an RNA binding protein that plays important roles in splicing of mRNA precursors. Mutations in SRSF2 are frequently found in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes and certain leukemias, but how they affect SRSF2 function has only begun to be examined. Here we used CRISPR/Cas9 to introduce the P95H mutation to SRSF2 in K562 leukemia cells, generating an isogenic model so that splicing alterations can be attributed solely to mutant SRSF2. We found that SRSF2 (P95H) misregulates 548 splicing events (<1% of total). Of these, 374 involve the inclusion of cassette exons, and the inclusion was either increased (206) or decreased (168). We detected a specific motif (UCCA/UG) enriched in the more included exons and a distinct motif (UGGA/UG) in the more excluded exons. RNA gel shift assays showed that a mutant SRSF2 derivative bound more tightly than its wild-type counterpart to RNA sites containing UCCAG, but less tightly to UGGAG sites. The pattern of exon inclusion or exclusion thus correlated in most cases with stronger or weaker RNA binding, respectively. We further show that the P95H mutation does not affect other functions of SRSF2, i.e., protein-protein interactions with key splicing factors. Our results thus demonstrate that the P95H mutation positively or negatively alters the binding affinity of SRSF2 for cognate RNA sites in target transcripts, leading to misregulation of exon inclusion. Our findings not only shed light on the mechanism of the disease-associated SRSF2 mutation in splicing regulation, but also reveal a group of mis-spliced mRNA isoforms for potential therapeutic targeting. Examination of differentially spliced events in K562 CRISPR cell clones (with wild-type or mutant SRSF2) by RNA sequencing