In this work, we have addressed the role of yeast L35 r-protein in ribosome biogenesis. L35 is an evolutionarily conserved protein in eukaryotes; moreover, a notable sequence homology exists between the N-terminal and central sequences of L35 and the eubacterial and archaeal L29 (
Supplementary Figure S3). According to the X-ray crystals of 50S r-subunits, prokaryotic L29 is a globular protein made up of helical bundle domain [(
47);
Supplementary Figure S4]. The analysis of the models derived from the cryo-electron microscopy data of the yeast and dog 60S r-subunits suggests that at least the N-terminal and central parts of L35 are structurally similar to prokaryotic L29 (
3,
4,
47); however, the distinct C-terminal extension of L35 can not been modelled. In addition, prokaryotic L29 and eukaryotic L35 have been mapped very close to prokaryotic L23 and L24 and eukaryotic L25 and L26, respectively, surrounding the nascent polypeptide exit tunnel ((
3,
4,
47);
Supplementary Figure S4). Due to this fact, L25 and L35 have been shown to be important for the contact of the ribosome with ribosome-associated enzymes, chaperones and complexes such as SRP or the Sec61/translocon (
48,
49). Finally, the 60S r-subunit models also reveal that L35 might bind mature 5.8S rRNA at equivalent positions to those archaeal L29 interacts in mature 23S rRNA within domain I [(
47);
Supplementary Figure S6]. Accordingly, it has been demonstrated that rat liver L35 binds
in vitro to yeast 5.8S rRNA (
82).
Unfortunately, despite all this knowledge, there is almost no information available on the role of L35 or its prokaryotic L29 counterpart in ribosome biogenesis, excluding some polysome profiles obtained for the
Δrpl35A and
Δrpl35B strains (
50). Herewith, we have analysed the consequences for ribosome biogenesis of either the deletion of
RPL35A and
RPL35B or the depletion of L35. Our results show that deletion of
RPL35A leads to a severe impairment of growth while deletion of
RPL35B has almost no effect on growth (). This situation is similar to that found for other many yeast r-proteins encoded by duplicated genes, among them L15 (
83), L11 (
84) and L2 (
85). In agreement with the previous report (
50), polysome analysis reveals a more drastic 60S r-subunit deficit for the
Δrpl35A than for the
Δrpl35B strain. Consistent with this, western blot analysis suggests that
RPL35A plays a more important role in the production of L35 than
RPL35B (). As expected, depletion of L35 leads to an even stronger deficit in 60S r-subunits (). Analysis of pre-rRNA processing by pulse-chase labeling and northern blotting analysis clearly indicates that the 60S r-subunit deficit exhibited by the
rpl35 mutants is due to a strong inhibition of processing of the 27SB pre-rRNAs, which leads to reduced formation of 7S and 25.5S pre-rRNAs and thus of mature 5.8S and 25S rRNAs, respectively (, and data not shown). Pulse-chase and northern blot analysis also indicate that deletion of
RPL35A and depletion of L35 cause a decrease in the efficiency of processing at the early cleavage sites A
0, A
1 and A
2, thereby affecting the levels of mature 18S rRNA and its 20S precursor and leading to the appearance and accumulation of the aberrant 23S pre-rRNA ( and ). This type of defect in 18S rRNA synthesis, which has been extensively reported, is a feature of many mutants in genes encoding 60S r-subunit synthesis factors or 60S r-proteins (
5,
11,
41,
86). Northern and primer extension analysis also show an accumulation of 27SA
3 pre-rRNA in the
Δrpl35A and the L35-depleted strain, however, the ratio of the mature 5.8S
L and 5.8S
S rRNAs is not altered as observed upon mutation or depletion of RNase MRP, which is the endonuclease responsible for the cleavage at site A
3 (
87,
88). These pre-rRNA processing defects, at least the accumulation of 27SB pre-rRNAs, closely resemble those described upon mutation in or depletion of some 60S r-subunit biogenesis factors, such as Dbp10 (
89), Mak11 (
90), Nip7 (
91), Nog1 (
30), Nop2 (
92), Nop3 (
93), Rlp24 (
30), Spb1 (
94) and Spb4 (
95). The levels of 27SA
3 pre-rRNAs were checked only upon depletion of Spb1 and Spb4 and in both cases, similarly as upon L35 depletion, there was a clear increase of this precursor, especially at early depletion time points (
94,
95). Interestingly, depletion of r-protein L25 as well as mutations in either the L25-binding site within domain III of 25S rRNA or in L25, which abolish its association with this rRNA site also resulted in a notable inhibition of 27SB pre-rRNA processing (
40,
96,
97). Peculis and co-workers have also demonstrated that formation of the so-called ITS2 proximal stem in which the 3′-end of 5.8S rRNA base-pairs with the 5′-end of 25S rRNA is a prerequisite for efficient 27SB pre-rRNA processing (
32,
98,
99). All these results and observations strongly suggest that assembly of L25 and/or L35 may be required to achieve the proper structural conformation in the ITS2 region of the 27SB-preRNAs for efficient cleavage at site C
2. Nevertheless, it is unlikely that L35, which lacks known nuclease motifs, represents the still unknown endonuclease responsible for this cleavage. Further experiments are required to identify this endonuclease and test its link with L25 and L35 and factors such as Spb4 that are required for 27SB pre-rRNA processing; one possibility is that interaction of any of these factors with 27SB pre-rRNA containing pre-60S r-particles could be dependent on previous association of L25 and L35 r-proteins. Recently, it has been proposed that 20S to 18S pre-rRNA processing by endonucleolytic cleavage at site D is promoted by a structural rearrangement of cytoplasmic 43S pre-ribosomal particles (
100). This requires, in addition to the endonuclease Nob1 and the RNA helicase Prp43 (
100), the participation of S3 (
28,
34) and the C-terminal end of S14 (
101) among other 40S r-proteins such as S0, S2, S10, S15, S20, S21, S26 and S28, which all are needed for efficient 20S pre-rRNA processing to mature 18S (
34,
102). We wonder if a similar scenario would apply for the function of r-proteins L25 and L35, the C
2-site endonuclease and the RNA helicases Spb4 and Dpb10.
In addition to pre-rRNA processing defects, very rapidly upon L35 depletion and in
Δrpl35A cells, there is an accumulation of the L25-eGFP but not of the S2-eGFP reporter first in the nucleolus and later in the whole nucleus (). This result suggests that L25-GFP containing pre-60S r-particles are being retained in the nucle(ol)us due to impaired intra-nuclear and nucleo-cytoplasmic export. This phenotype has previously been observed in several mutants affecting 60S r-subunit biogenesis [e.g. see (
103) and references therein], including some mutants of 60S r-protein genes (
38,
41,
62). As earlier discussed (
103), this phenotype is likely not the consequence of a defect in the
bona fide export machinery but of a quality control system that retains defective pre-60S r-subunit particles. L25 has been suggested to assemble at an early stage of the 60S r-subunit maturation pathway (
45), thus since the
rpl35 mutants accumulate 27SB pre-rRNAs, the L25-eGFP fluorescence signal observed at early time points of L35 depletion would mainly correspond to nucleolar, aberrant early E
2 pre-60S r-particles. This is consistent with the fact that 27SB pre-rRNA processing at site C
2 most likely occurs in the nucleolus (
23,
104). Export of pre-60S r-particles requires the participation of several nuclear export receptors among them Arx1 (
105,
106). Results of Johnson′s laboratory strongly suggest that Arx1 binds in the vicinity of L25 and L35 at the exit tunnel of late pre-60S r-particles (
107). This is consistent with the fact that Arx1 is structurally related to methionine aminopeptidases, which as mentioned above, interact with translating ribosomes
via the outside part of the nascent peptide exit tunnel (
48). Therefore, some of the accumulation of L25-eGFP in the nucleoplasm, seen in the L35-depleted strain at late time points, could reflect the loss of Arx1 binding to aberrant pre-60S r-particles. Indeed, our initial experiments show that the sedimentation behavior of Arx1 is altered upon L35-depletion. Thus, in the
GAL::RPL35 strain in permissive conditions, Arx1 co-sediments with both free fractions and large complexes that could correspond to pre-60S r-particles in sucrose gradients. However, upon L35-depletion, Arx1 is largely absent from the 60S peak and is predominantly present at the top of the gradient. This suggests that Arx1 binding to pre-60S r-particles depends on the presence of L35 in these r-particles (R.B., unpublished results).
In this work, we have also addressed the course of assembly of L35. No previous information was available for the yeast L35 r-protein even in the seminal work that addressed the kinetics of stable association of most r-proteins with pre-ribosomal particles (
45). However, it could be demonstrated that human L35 r-protein binds to nucle(ol)ar pre-60S r-particles in HeLa cells (
44). Consistently, it has also been shown in HeLa cells that L35 is imported to the nucleus due to the presence of a NLS within the C-terminal part of the protein (
108). In this study, we present several lines of evidence that yeast L35 assembly occurs in the nucle(ol)us. Thus, we show that a functional GFP-tagged L35B protein accumulates in the nucleus upon inhibition of nucleo-cytoplasmic export of pre-60S r-particles (), either by a LMB treatment or overexpression of the
nmd3Δ100 allele. We have also examined the pre- and mature rRNAs with which affinity-purified L35B-eGFP is associated (). Our results strongly suggest that L35 is not present in 90S pre-ribosomal particles and it only stably binds to early pre-60S r-particles as soon as 27SA
2 pre-rRNA is formed. These results are consistent with the fact that only few 60S r-subunit biogenesis factors and r-proteins have been detected in TAP-purifications of components of 90S pre-ribosomal particles (
18). In
E. coli, L29, the bacterial counterpart of yeast L35, is also an early assembling r-protein (
109,
110). Strikingly, binding of L29 to 23S rRNA
in vitro is strongly dependent on L4, which lacks a known eukaryotic counterpart, and L23 and L24, which are the bacterial homologues of L25 and L26, respectively (Ribosomal Protein Gene Database,
http://ribosome.med.miyazaki-u.ac.jp). As above mentioned, yeast L25 and L26 are the closest neighbours of L35 (
Supplementary Figure S4), thus, further experiments are required to determine whether
in vivo assembly of yeast L25, L26 and L35 is interdependent.
Supplementary Figure S2 summarizes the conclusions of this study concerning the L35 assembly in wild-type cells and the dynamics of 60S r-subunit maturation upon depletion of this 60S r-protein.
While this manuscript was finalized, Pöll
et al. (
35) reported a comparative analysis of the pre-rRNA processing and nucleo-cytoplasmic transport defects that arise upon depletion of 26 different yeast 60S r-proteins, among them L35. Consistent with our data, it was shown that depletion of L35 strongly delays 27SB pre-rRNA processing into 7S and 25.5S pre-rRNAs and inhibits export of pre-60S r-particles. Interestingly, not only L35 and the expected L25 were found to be required for 27SB pre-rRNA processing, but also L9, L19, L23, L27 and L34 (
35). Understanding how all these different 60S r-proteins and L26, which was unfortunately not included in that study (
35), do cooperate to promote efficient cleavage at site C
2 clearly requires further work.
Finally, we report that L35 depletion results in small, unbudded cells that are mildly delayed in the G1 phase of the cell cycle (). In yeast, cell-cycle defects have been previously described for mutants or strains depleted of r-proteins and biogenesis factors [see (
27,
41,
81) and references therein]. Although, an impairment of different cell-cycle stages could be observed, arrest in the G1 phase was the most common phenotype (
41,
80,
81). This has been generally related to the intimate link between progression through the G1 phase of the cell cycle and active protein synthesis, which is a prerequisite for acquiring the critical cell size and mass in order to pass the Start point (
81,
111). It has been suggested that zebrafish
RPL35, as many other r-protein genes, acts as an haploinsufficient tumor suppressor by a yet unknown mechanism (
51). Indeed, the heterozygous zebrafish line containing a loss-of-function mutation in one of the two
RPL35 alleles has the highest predisposition to cancer among the different r-protein genes analysed (
51). As previously discussed (
17), it seems contradictory that a reduced ribosome synthesis could lead to dysregulation of cell growth and oncogenesis; however, a delayed progression in cell cycle may increase the selective pressure for mutations to overcome the problems of a reduced ribosome production. A challenge for future studies will be to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying the connections between ribosome biogenesis defects and cancer development.