Poly(A) Tail Length Is Controlled by the Nuclear Poly(A)-binding Protein Regulating the Interaction between Poly(A) Polymerase and the Cleavage and Polyadenylation Specificity Factor

Poly(A) tails of mRNAs are synthesized in the cell nucleus with a defined length, ∼250 nucleotides in mammalian cells. The same type of length control is seen in an in vitro polyadenylation system reconstituted from three proteins: poly(A) polymerase, cleavage and polyadenylation specificity factor (CPSF), and the nuclear poly(A)-binding protein (PABPN1). CPSF, binding the polyadenylation signal AAUAAA, and PABPN1, binding the growing poly(A) tail, cooperatively stimulate poly(A) polymerase such that a complete poly(A) tail is synthesized in one processive event, which terminates at a length of ∼250 nucleotides. We report that PABPN1 is required to restrict CPSF binding to the AAUAAA sequence and to permit the stimulation of poly(A) polymerase by AAUAAA-bound CPSF to be maintained throughout the elongation reaction. The stimulation by CPSF is disrupted when the poly(A) tail has reached a length of ∼250 nucleotides, and this terminates processive elongation. PABPN1 measures the length of the tail and is responsible for disrupting the CPSF-poly(A) polymerase interaction.The poly(A) tails present at the 3′ end of almost all eukaryotic mRNAs have two major functions. The first function is in the control of mRNA decay; degradation of the poly(A) tail by a 3′ exonuclease (deadenylation) is the first step in both of the two main pathways of mRNA decay, and the completion of deadenylation triggers the second step, either cap hydrolysis or further 3′–5′ degradation. Because the rate of deadenylation is governed by sequence elements in the mRNA, it is specific for each mRNA species and serves as a major determinant of mRNA half-life (1–3). Obviously, a control of mRNA stability by the rate of deadenylation requires a defined poly(A) length as a starting point. The second function of the poly(A) tail is in the initiation of translation; the cytoplasmic poly(A)-binding protein associated with the poly(A) tail promotes the initiation of translation by an interaction with the initiation factor eIF4G and probably through additional mechanisms (4–7). In this process, poly(A) tail length can also be important. For example, gene regulation during oocyte maturation and early embryonic development of animals depends on translational regulation of maternal mRNAs, and changes in poly(A) tail lengths of specific mRNAs, determined both by deadenylation and by regulated cytoplasmic poly(A) extension, play a major role in this translational regulation. Long poly(A) tails favor translation, whereas a shortening of the tail promotes translational inactivation of the message (8, 9). Similar mechanisms seem to operate in neurons (10, 11) and possibly in other somatic cells (12).Because the length of the poly(A) tail is important for its function, it is not surprising that poly(A) tails are generally synthesized with a defined length, which is species-specific, ∼70–90 nucleotides in Saccharomyces cerevisiae (13, 14) and ∼250 nucleotides in mammalian cells (15). Subtle differences between newly made poly(A) tails of different mRNAs have been described (13), and there is even a class of mRNAs that never receives more than an oligo(A) tail (16, 17). However, the heterogeneous length distribution seen in the steady-state mRNA population is the result of cytoplasmic shortening starting from a relatively well defined initial tail length; heterogeneity of tail length reflects age differences of the mRNA molecules. The oligo(A) tails present on inactive mRNAs in oocytes or embryos are also generated by shortening of full-length tails made in the cell nucleus (18).The poly(A) tail is added during 3′ end processing of mRNA precursors in the cell nucleus (19–21). This reaction consists of two steps: an endonucleolytic cleavage followed by the addition of the poly(A) tail to the upstream cleavage product. Whereas a large protein machinery of some 20 or more polypeptides (22) is required for the cleavage reaction, subsequent polyadenylation has much simpler protein requirements. In the mammalian system, it can be reconstituted from three proteins: poly(A) polymerase, the enzyme catalyzing primer-dependent polymerization of AMP using ATP as a precursor (23–25); the cleavage and polyadenylation specificity factor (CPSF),⁶ which binds the cleavage and polyadenylation signal AAUAAA (26, 27); and the nuclear poly(A)-binding protein (PABPN1), which binds the growing poly(A) tail (28, 29). Note that PABPN1 is distinct from the family of cytoplasmic poly(A)-binding proteins (30). Roles of poly(A) polymerase and CPSF in polyadenylation in vivo have been most clearly demonstrated by genetic analysis of the orthologues in S. cerevisiae (21, 31). PABPN1 has no functional orthologue in budding yeast (32); its function in polyadenylation has been confirmed in mammalian cells (33) and in Drosophila (34).Whereas PABPN1 and poly(A) polymerase are monomeric proteins, CPSF is a hetero-oligomer, which has not yet been reconstituted from recombinant proteins (22, 26, 35–40). Poly(A) polymerase on its own is barely active because of a low affinity for its RNA substrate and thus acts distributively, i.e. it dissociates from the RNA after each polymerization step, and presumably often before it has incorporated any nucleotide; the enzyme also has no significant sequence specificity and will elongate any RNA with a free 3′ OH (24). Both CPSF and PABPN1 enhance the activity of the polymerase by recruiting the enzyme to its substrate through direct interactions (38, 41). Sequence specificity of poly(A) addition reflects the RNA binding specificities of the two stimulatory factors: CPSF recruits the polymerase to RNAs containing the AAUAAA sequence in the vicinity of their 3′ ends (24, 42, 43), and PABPN1 recruits the enzyme to substrate RNAs carrying a terminal oligo(A) tract (29). Each factor alone endows the polymerase with modest processivity, such that it can incorporate maybe two to five nucleotides before dissociating (44). RNAs containing both the AAUAAA sequence and an oligo(A) tail and thus resembling intermediates of the polyadenylation reaction support a cooperative or synergistic stimulation of poly(A) polymerase by both CPSF and PABPN1. Under these conditions, addition of the poly(A) tail occurs in a processive manner, i.e. without intermittent dissociation of the protein complex from its substrate RNA (29, 44).Interestingly, the reconstituted polyadenylation reaction also shows proper length control, generating poly(A) tails of the same length as seen in vivo; tails grow to a relatively well defined length of 250–300 nucleotides in a rapid, processive reaction (29, 44). Length control is due to termination of this processive elongation; extension beyond 250 A residues is largely distributive and therefore slow (45). These kinetics of in vitro poly(A) tail synthesis are fully consistent with the in vivo kinetics derived from pulse-labeling studies (46). In vitro, poly(A) tail elongation rates beyond 250 A residues are similar when either CPSF or PABPN1 or both are present. In other words, substrates with long poly(A) tails no longer support the cooperative stimulation of poly(A) polymerase by both CPSF and PABPN1 that is the basis of processive elongation (45). The termination of processive elongation must be mediated by a change in the RNA-protein complex that remains to be defined. When RNAs carrying poly(A) tails of different lengths are used as substrates for polyadenylation, the tails are always elongated processively to 250 nucleotides, independently of the initial length, whereas extension of a tail of 250 or more nucleotides in length is slow and distributive from the start of the reaction. Thus, poly(A) tail length control is based on some kind of AMP residue counting or length measurement, not on a kinetic mechanism (45).In this paper, we address the two problems outlined above: first, how does the polyadenylation complex change to terminate processive poly(A) tail elongation, and second, how is the length of the tail measured? We provide evidence that PABPN1 is the active component in the mechanism of length control. The protein promotes the interaction between CPSF and poly(A) polymerase when bound to a short poly(A) tail. PABPN1 no longer promotes or even actively disrupts this interaction when bound to a poly(A) tail of 250 nucleotides or longer and thereby terminates the cooperative, processive elongation reaction in a poly(A) tail length-dependent manner. Only poly(A) sequences are counted as part of the tail. Because this reflects the binding specificity of PABPN1 and because disruption of the CPSF-poly(A) polymerase interaction requires complete coverage of the poly(A) tail by this protein, PABPN1 is also the protein that measures the length of the tail.