RT Journal
A1 O'Reilly, Dawn
A1 Dienstbier, Martin
A1 Cowley, Sally A.
A1 Vazquez, Pilar
A1 Drożdż, Marek
A1 Taylor, Stephen
A1 James, William S.
A1 Murphy, Shona
T1 Differentially expressed, variant U1 snRNAs regulate gene expression in human cells
JF Genome Research 
JO Genome Research 
YR 2012 
FD October 15 
DO 10.1101/gr.142968.112 
UL http://genome.cshlp.org/content/early/2012/12/12/gr.142968.112.abstract 
AB Human U1 small nuclear (sn)RNA, required for splicing of pre-mRNA, is encoded by genes on chromosome 1 (1p36). Imperfect copies of these U1 snRNA genes, also located on chromosome 1 (1q12-21), were thought to be pseudogenes. However, many of these “variant” (v)U1 snRNA genes produce fully processed transcripts. Using antisense oligonucleotides to block the activity of a specific vU1 snRNA in HeLa cells, we have identified global transcriptome changes following interrogation of the Affymetrix Human Exon ST 1.0 array. Our results indicate that this vU1 snRNA regulates expression of a subset of target genes at the level of pre-mRNA processing. This is the first indication that variant U1 snRNAs have a biological function in vivo. Furthermore, some vU1 snRNAs are packaged into unique ribonucleoproteins (RNPs), and many vU1 snRNA genes are differentially expressed in human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and HeLa cells, suggesting developmental control of RNA processing through expression of different sets of vU1 snRNPs.