The mTOR regulated RNA-binding protein LARP1 requires PABPC1 for guided mRNA interaction

The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) is a pivotal kinase responsible for transducing cellular energy signals to regulate a host of metabolic processes including protein synthesis, which in turn regulate cell growth and proliferation. All aspects of mRNA life cycle are controlled by protein/RNA interactions and although several effectors of mTOR signalling have been identified to date, how mTOR re-sculptures the mRNA interactome is unknown. Here we characterise mTOR regulated RNA-binding proteins, identifying LARP1, whose binding to RNA increases upon mTOR inhibition. We identified over 3800 LARP1 bound mRNAs, which can be broken down into two groups, those constantly bound by LARP1, or mRNAs that increase their interaction following mTOR inhibition. LARP1 has been implicated in the control of TOP mRNA translation and importantly we observe a large number of TOP mRNAs increasing association with LARP1 upon mTOR inhibition. Regarding the regulation of LARP1, we show that LARP1 and PABP show coordinated differential mRNA binding after mTOR inhibition. Importantly we find that LARP1-PABP interaction is important for LARP1 mRNA binding and mutations in the DM15 domain of LARP1 do not perturb its RNA interaction. Lastly we show that mRNAs bound by LARP1 and PABP are translationally repressed, including mRNAs encoding proteins critical for cell growth and survival. RNA-IP was conducted on endogenous LARP1 and PABP with and without Torin treatment for 1h. RNA-IPs were also conducted for overexpressed Flag-LARP