Unwinding the roles of DEAD-box RNA helicases DDX39A and DDX39B in alternative RNA splicing

Dead-box RNA helicases are crucial in mRNA processing, specifically in RNA splicing. Our previous work has shown that DDX39B is responsible for regulating the splicing of IL7R exon 6 and several FOXP3 introns, which rely on DDX39B's helicase and ATPase activities, respectively [this is not accurate since exon 6 also must require the ATPase activity, which is required for helicase activity]. In this study, we aimed to investigate whether DDX39A, a highly homologous paralog of DDX39B, plays a similar role in regulating alternative RNA splicing. We find that DDX39A and DDX39B have significant redundancy in their gene targets, however, DDX39A is incapable of complementing defective splicing of IL7R exon 6 when DDX39B is knockdown. Conversely, overexpressing DDX39A can rescue FOXP3 intron 11 splicing under DDX39B-depleted conditions. In this work we also confirm that introns containing C-rich/U-poor polypyrimidine tract are very sensitive to DDX39B levels. We also observed that cassette exons with C-rich/U-poor py tracts in upstream introns were also sensitive to DDX39B levels and were skipped more upon depletion of DDX39B, but not DDX39A. Among the introns retained more upon DDX39A and DDX39B depletion were DDX39A and DDX39B intron 6, which depend on DDX39A and DDX39B levels, respectively. Therefore, we identified an autoregulatory mechanism through which DDX39A and DDX39B control their respective expression. This study presents evidence that while DDX39A and DDX39B differentially impact certain RNA splicing events, they have many shared targets.