Paper alert!

The team led by Kevin Rouault-Pierre has a long-standing interest in Myelodysplastic Neoplasms (#MDS), #bloodcancers in which nearly 50% of patients harbor mutations in #splicingfactors. These mutations lead to the production of aberrant transcripts that are either degraded through nonsense-mediated mRNA decay or translated into aberrant proteins.

Kévin says: “When we discovered that the cell’s major protein stress sensor, the #EndoplasmicReticulum, was involved in rewiring RNA splicing, we could not resist exploring this connection further.”

This work leads to a publication in the journal Nature Communications entitled « PERK Orchestrates an Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress Alternative Splicing Program via CLK1/SRSF1 ».

In brief in this study, Céline Philippe et al. unveil a novel mechanism controlling splicing programs. There is very little known about mechanisms that are driving splicing rewiring, and they discovered the activation of the endoplasmic reticulum stress that controls protein quality in our cells (among other stresses) can drive splicing rewiring through CLK1 translation and SRSF1 phosphorylation.

It was made possible through the contributions of outstanding collaborators and an incredible team, to whom Kévin is deeply grateful. Thank you to everyone and the funders who helped bring this study to life.

Enjoy the read!