PLX170037

GSE116017: CDK12 Regulates DNA Repair Genes by Suppressing Intronic Polyadenylation

• Organsim mouse
• Type RNASEQ
• Target gene
• Project ARCHS4

Mutations that attenuate DNA repair by homologous recombination (HR) promote tumorigenesis and sensitize cells to chemotherapeutic agents that cause replication fork collapse, a phenotype known as BRCAness. BRCAness tumors arise from loss-of-function mutations in 22 genes. Of these genes, all but one (Cdk12) directly function in the HR repair pathway. Cdk12 phosphorylates Serine 2 of the RNA Polymerase II (RNAPII) C-terminal domain (CTD) heptapeptide repeat, a modification that regulates transcription elongation, splicing, and cleavage/polyadenylation. Genome-wide expression studies suggest that Cdk12 depletion abrogates the expression of several HR genes relatively specifically, blunting HR repair. This observation suggests that Cdk12 mutational status may predict tumor sensitivity to targeted treatments against BRCAness, such as Parp 1 inhibitors, and that small-molecule inhibitors of Cdk12 may induce sensitization of otherwise HR-competent tumors to these treatments. Despite this growing clinical interest, the mechanism behind the apparent specificity of Cdk12 in regulating HR genes remains unknown. Here we find that Cdk12 globally suppresses intronic polyadenylation events, enabling the production of full-length gene products. Many HR genes harbor significantly more intronic polyadenylation sites compared to all expressed genes, and the cumulative effect of these sites accounts for the increased sensitivity of HR gene expression to Cdk12 loss. Finally, we find evidence that Cdk12 loss-of-function mutations cause increased intronic polyadenylation within HR genes in human tumors, suggesting that this mechanism is conserved. This work clarifies the biological function of CDK12 and underscores its potential both as a chemotherapeutic target and as a tumor biomarker. SOURCE: Sara,Jane,Dubbury (dubbury@mit.edu) - Phillip Sharp MIT