Abstract 3482: METTL3-mediated m6A modification controls splicing factor abundance and contributes to CLL progression
Authors: Wu Yiming , Jin Meiling , Fernandez Mike , Hart Kevyn , Liao Aijun , Fernandes Stacey M. , McDonald Tinisha , Chen Zhenhua , Röth Daniel , Ghoda Lucy , Marcucci Guido , Kalkum Markus , Pillai Raju K. , Danilov Alexey V. , Chen Jianjun , Brown Jennifer R. , Rosen Steven T. , Siddiqi Tanya , Wang Lili 
Published: April 2023

RNA splicing dysregulation is a hallmark of cancers and underlies the onset and progression of diseases. Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is one of the most common adult leukemia in western countries. Spliceosome mutations occur in ~20% of patients. However, the mechanism for splicing defects in spliceosome unmutated CLL cases remains elusive. Through an integrative transcriptomic and proteomic analysis of primary CLL samples, we discovered proteins involved in RNA splicing are post-transcriptionally upregulated. Coupled with clinical annotation, we found spliceosome protein abundance is an independent risk factor and associated with poor prognosis. Splice variants found in CLL are highly overlapped with those driven by high spliceosome abundance but not splicing factor mutations, indicating high spliceosome abundance contributes to genetic lesion-independent splicing defects. To identify potential regulators for spliceosome, we proteome-widely analyzed the proteins that highly correlated with splicing factors expression. Analysis of 113 CLL samples has consistently identified METTL3 upregulation with positive correlation with 77.6% of detected splicing factors. METTL3 is an RNA methyltransferase that modifies N6-methyladenosine (m6A) on mRNA and regulates the translation of m6A-installed transcripts. m6A level on mRNA is increased in CLL cells with differential m6A highly enriched on splicing related transcripts. Moreover, high METTL3 expression in CLL is also associated with poor clinical outcomes. These results suggested that METTL3 translationally controls splicing factors through m6A and plays a role in CLL progression. Toward this end, we demonstrated that METTL3 is essential for CLL growth in both in vitro and in vivo studies. Knock out (KO) and pharmaceutical inhibition of METTL3 decreased cell growth and splicing factor expression. Overexpression of wildtype but not catalytic mutant METTL3 restored both defects in METTL3 KO cells, indicating that the regulation of splicing factor is m6A-dependent. To dissect the underlying mechanism, we performed an integrated Ribo-seq, RNA-seq, and MeRIP-seq on CLL cells with or without METTL3. KO of METTL3 decreased overall translation efficiency (TE) with RNA splicing as the most significantly affected pathway. Splicing factors with reduced TE displayed either hypo-m6A at stop codon region or hyper-m6A at CDS regions upon METTL3 KO, as direct or indirect targets of METTL3. Moreover, we found that m6A at stop codon and CDS regions regulates splicing factor translation via ribosome recycling and ribosome pausing, respectively. Taken together, our results uncovered a novel regulatory axis for METTL3 that controls splicing factor translation and contributes to CLL progression. Our study highlights a post-transcriptional layer of m6A modification as a major contributor to genetic lesion-independent splicing defects in CLL.

Citation Format: Yiming Wu, Meiling Jin, Mike Fernandez, Kevyn Hart, Aijun Liao, Stacey M. Fernandes, Tinisha McDonald, Zhenhua Chen, Daniel Röth, Lucy Ghoda, Guido Marcucci, Markus Kalkum, Raju K. Pillai, Alexey V. Danilov, Jianjun Chen, Jennifer R. Brown, Steven T. Rosen, Tanya Siddiqi, Lili Wang. METTL3-mediated m6A modification controls splicing factor abundance and contributes to CLL progression [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 1 (Regular and Invited Abstracts); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(7_Suppl):Abstract nr 3482.