XRN2 Autoregulation and Control of Polycistronic Gene Expression in Caenorhabditis elegans

XRN2 is a conserved 5’-->3’ exoribonuclease that complexes with XTB-domain containing proteins. Thus, in Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans), the XTBD-protein PAXT-1 stabilizes XRN2 to retain its activity. XRN2 activity is also promoted by 3''(2''),5''-bisphosphate nucleotidase 1 (BPNT1) through its hydrolysis of 3’-phosphoadenosine-5''-bisphosphate (PAP), an endogenous XRN inhibitor. Here, we find through unbiased screening that loss of bpnt-1 function suppresses lethality caused by paxt-1 deletion. This unexpected finding is explained by XRN2 autoregulation, which occurs through repression of a cryptic promoter activity and destabilization of the xrn-2 transcript. Autoregulation appears to be triggered at different thresholds of XRN2 inactivation, such that more robust XRN2 perturbation, by elimination of both PAXT-1 and BPNT1, is less detrimental to worm viability than absence of PAXT-1 alone. Like more than 15% of C. elegans genes, xrn-2 occurs in an operon, and we identify additional operons under its control, consistent with a broader function of XRN2 in polycistronic gene regulation. Regulation occurs through intercistronic regions that link genes in an operon, but similar mechanisms may allow XRN2 to operate on monocistronic genes in organisms lacking operons. Overall design: Wild-type C. elegans worms were subjected to mock or xrn-2 RNAi from L1 to L4 stage at 20°C. Total RNA was extracted from the worms, and polyadenylated RNA was analyzed.