Pervasive Changes Of Mrna Splicing In Upf1-Deficient Zebrafish Identify Rpl10a As A Regulator Of T Cell Development

The transcriptome of eukaryotic cells is constantly monitored for errors to avoid the production of undesired protein variants. The evolutionarily conserved nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) pathway degrades aberrant mRNAs, but also functions in the regulation of transcript abundance in response to changed physiological states. Here, we describe a zebrafish mutant of upf1, encoding the central component of the NMD machinery. Fish homozygous for the upf1(t20450) allele (Y163X) survive until day 10 after fertilization, presenting with impaired T cell development as one of the most conspicuous features of the mutant phenotype. Analysis of differentially expressed genes identified dysregulation of the premRNA splicing pathway, accompanied by perturbed autoregulation of canonical splicing activators (SRSF) and repressors (HNRNP). In upf1-deficient mutants, NMD-susceptible transcripts of ribosomal proteins that are known for their role as noncanonical splicing regulators were greatly increased, most notably, rpl10a. When the levels of NMD-susceptible rpl10a transcripts were artificially increased in zebrafish larvae, T cell development was significantly impaired, suggesting that perturbed autoregulation of rpl10a splicing contributes to failing T cell development in upf1 deficiency. Our results identify an extraribosomal tissue-specific function to rpl10a in the immune system, and thus exemplify the advantages of the zebrafish model to study the effects of upf1-deficiency in the context of a vertebrate organism.