Minor intron retention drives clonal hematopoietic disorders and diverse cancer predisposition.

Most metazoans contain two distinct pre-mRNA splicing machineries: the major spliceosome, which removes >99% of introns, and the minor spliceosome, which recognizes <1% of introns. Despite their rarity, minor introns are exquisitely conserved amongst species, suggesting important regulatory functions. However, physiologic roles for the minor spliceosome and the relevance of recurrent, leukemia-associated mutations affecting minor spliceosome components are not well understood. Here, we identify that mutational loss of the minor spliceosomal factor ZRSR2 enhances hematopoietic stem cell self-renewal via impaired minor intron splicing that converges on LZTR1, a regulator of Ras-related GTPases. LZTR1 minor intron retention is additionally observed in Noonan syndrome and diverse cancers. These data uncover minor intron recognition as a regulator of hematopoiesis and mechanistic links between ZRSR2 mutations, LZTR1, and leukemia. eCLIP of human K562 cell lines expressing either empty vector FLAG or ZRSR2 with an N-terminal FLAG tag.