TY - INPR A1 - Sekulovski, Samoil A1 - Devant, Pascal A1 - Panizza, Silvia A1 - Gogakos, Tasos A1 - Pitiriciu, Anda A1 - Heitmeier, Katharina A1 - Ramsay, Ewan Phillip A1 - Barth, Marie A1 - Schmidt, Carla A1 - Weitzer, Stefan A1 - Tuschl, Thomas A1 - Baas, Frank A1 - Martinez, Javier A1 - Trowitzsch, Simon T1 - Assembly defects of the human tRNA splicing endonuclease contribute to impaired pre-tRNA processing in pontocerebellar hypoplasia T2 - bioRxiv N2 - Introns of human transfer RNA precursors (pre-tRNAs) are excised by the tRNA splicing endonuclease TSEN in complex with the RNA kinase CLP1. Mutations in TSEN/CLP1 occur in patients with pontocerebellar hypoplasia (PCH), however, their role in the disease is unclear. Here, we show that intron excision is catalyzed by tetrameric TSEN assembled from inactive heterodimers independently of CLP1. Splice site recognition involves the mature domain and the anticodon-intron base pair of pre-tRNAs. The 2.1-Å resolution X-ray crystal structure of a TSEN15–34 heterodimer and differential scanning fluorimetry analyses show that PCH mutations cause thermal destabilization. While endonuclease activity in recombinant mutant TSEN is unaltered, we observe assembly defects and reduced pre-tRNA cleavage activity resulting in an imbalanced pre-tRNA pool in PCH patient-derived fibroblasts. Our work defines the molecular principles of intron excision in humans and provides evidence that modulation of TSEN stability may contribute to PCH phenotypes. Y1 - 2020 UR - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/72809 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-728096 IS - 2020.08.03.234229 ER -