Structural basis for RNA recognition in roquin-mediated post-transcriptional gene regulation

Andreas Schlundt, Gitta A. Heinz, Robert Janowski, Arie Geerlof, Ralf Stehle, Vigo Heissmeyer, Dierk Niessing, Michael Sattler

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

76 Scopus citations

Abstract

Roquin function in T cells is essential for the prevention of autoimmune disease. Roquin interacts with the 3' €2 untranslated regions (UTRs) of co-stimulatory receptors and controls T-cell activation and differentiation. Here we show that the N-terminal ROQ domain from mouse roquin adopts an extended winged-helix (WH) fold, which is sufficient for binding to the constitutive decay element (CDE) in the Tnf 3' €2 UTR. The crystal structure of the ROQ domain in complex with a prototypical CDE RNA stem-loop reveals tight recognition of the RNA stem and its triloop. Surprisingly, roquin uses mainly non-sequence-specific contacts to the RNA, thus suggesting a relaxed CDE consensus and implicating a broader spectrum of target mRNAs than previously anticipated. Consistently with this, NMR and binding experiments with CDE-like stem-loops together with cell-based assays confirm roquin-dependent regulation of relaxed CDE consensus motifs in natural 3' €2 UTRs.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)671-678
Number of pages8
JournalNature Structural and Molecular Biology
Volume21
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 2014
Externally publishedYes

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