SF3B1 association with chromatin determines splicing outcomes

Much remains unknown concerning the mechanism by which the splicing machinery pinpoints short exons within intronic sequences and how splicing factors are directed to their pre-mRNA targets. Part of the explanation probably lies in differences in chromatin organization between exons and introns. Proteomic, co-immunoprecipitation, and sedimentation analyses described here indicated that SF3B1, an essential splicing component of the U2 snRNP complex, is strongly associated with nucleosomes. ChIP-seq and RNA-seq analyses revealed that SF3B1 is specifically bound to nucleosomes located at exonic positions. SF3B1 binding is enriched at nucleosomes positioned over short exons flanked by long introns that are also characterized by differential GC content between exons and introns. Disruption of SF3B1 binding to such nucleosomes affected the splicing of these exons similarly to inhibition of SF3B1 expression. Our findings suggest that the association of SF3B1 with nucleosomes is functionally important for splice site recognition and that SF3B1 conveys splicing-relevant information embedded in chromatin structure. MNase-seq on Input and SF3B1 pull-down, mRNA-seq on control and SF3B1 si-RNA treated cells as well as on TSA (Trichostatin A) treated and untreated cells.