Erroneous ribosomal RNAs promote the generation of antisense ribosomal siRNA

Abstract

Ribosome biogenesis is a multistep process, during which mistakes can occur at any step of pre-rRNA processing, modification, and ribosome assembly. Misprocessed rRNAs are usually detected and degraded by surveillance machineries. Recently, we identified a class of antisense ribosomal siRNAs (risiRNAs) that down-regulate pre-rRNAs through the nuclear RNAi pathway. To further understand the biological roles of risiRNAs, we conducted both forward and reverse genetic screens to search for more suppressor of siRNA ( susi ) mutants. We isolated a number of genes that are broadly conserved from yeast to humans and are involved in pre-rRNA modification and processing. Among them, SUSI-2(ceRRP8) is homologous to human RRP8 and engages in m1A methylation of the 26S rRNA. C27F2.4(ceBUD23) is an m7G-methyltransferase of the 18S rRNA. E02H1.1(ceDIMT1L) is a predicted m6(2)Am6(2)A-methyltransferase of the 18S rRNA. Mutation of these genes led to a deficiency in modification of rRNAs and elicited accumulation of risiRNAs, which further triggered the cytoplasmic-to-nuclear and cytoplasmic-to-nucleolar translocations of the Argonaute protein NRDE-3. The rRNA processing deficiency also resulted in accumulation of risiRNAs. We also isolated SUSI-3(RIOK-1), which is similar to human RIOK1, that cleaves the 20S rRNA to 18S. We further utilized RNAi and CRISPR-Cas9 technologies to perform candidate-based reverse genetic screens and identified additional pre-rRNA processing factors that suppressed risiRNA production. Therefore, we concluded that erroneous rRNAs can trigger risiRNA generation and subsequently, turn on the nuclear RNAi-mediated gene silencing pathway to inhibit pre-rRNA expression, which may provide a quality control mechanism to maintain homeostasis of rRNAs.