The FK506-binding proteins (FKBPs) are a class of peptidyl-prolyl isomerase enzyme (PPIs) that catalyze the cis-trans inter-conversion of peptidyl-prolyl bonds in proteins. This non-covalent post-translational modification is a reversible mechanism to modulate protein structure and function. PPIs have been implicated in a wide variety of processes from protein folding to signal transduction. Despite these enzymes being ubiquitous, the substrates and functions of most PPIs have yet to be described. FKBP25 is a nuclear FKBP that has been shown to associate with transcription factors and chromatin modifying enzymes, however its functions and substrates remain largely unresolved. FKBP25 is the human ortholog of S. cerevisiae Fpr4, which has been shown to regulate the chromatin landscape by two distinct mechanisms: 1. Acting as a histone chaperone at ribosomal DNA, and 2. Isomerizing histone prolines. Based on these observations, I hypothesized FKBP25 regulates chromatin and/or ribosome biogenesis through isomerization of histone prolines and a discrete collection of substrate proteins. While small molecule inhibitors exist for FKBPs, applying them to dissect the specific function(s) of any given FKBP is confounded by the fact that multiple FKBPs are found in each organism, and several are inhibited by these molecules. In Chapter 2, I biochemically and structurally characterize a set of FKBP25 loss-of-function mutants, yielding a toolset capable of distinguishing between catalytic and non-catalytic functions. These reagents provide the tools necessary to analyze potential substrates of FKBP25 identified in my research going forward. In Chapter 3, I present the first unbiased proteomic screen of FKBP25 associated proteins and show that it interacts with a large number of ribosomal proteins, ribosomal processing factors and a smaller subset of chromatin proteins. I focus on the interaction between FKBP25 and nucleolin, a multi-functional nucleolar protein, and show that FKBP25 interacts with nucleolin and the pre-60s ribosomal subunit in an RNA dependent fashion. In Chapter 4, I gain insight into the role of FKBP25 in ribosome biology, and demonstratex that FKBP25 regulates RNA binding activity of nucleolin, however this does not appear to involve cis-trans prolyl isomerization. Collectively, my work establishes FKBP25 as the first human FKBP to be implicated in the maturation of the pre-60S ribosomal subunit in the nucleus. My data supports a model whereby FKBP25 associates with the assembling large ribosomal subunit, where it is likely to chaperone protein-RNA interactions. / Graduate

Protein coding genes are comprised of protein-coding exons and non-protein-coding introns. The process of splicing involves removal of the introns and joining of the exons to form a mature messenger RNA, which subsequently undergoes translation into polypeptide. The spliceosome is a large, RNA/protein assembly of five small nuclear RNAs as well as over 300 proteins, which catalyzes intron removal and exon ligation. The selection of specific exons for inclusion in the mature messenger RNA is spatio-temporally regulated and results in production of an enormous diversity of polypeptides from a single gene locus. This phenomenon, known as alternative splicing, is regulated, in part, by protein splicing factors, which target the spliceosome to exon/intron boundaries. The first part of my dissertation (Chapters II and III) focuses on the discovery and characterization of the 45 kilodalton FK506 binding protein (FKBP45), which I discovered in the silk moth, Bombyx mori, as a U1 small nuclear RNA binding protein. This protein family binds the immunosuppressants FK506 and rapamycin and contains peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase activity, which converts polypeptides from cis to trans about a proline residue. This is the first time that an FKBP has been identified in the spliceosome. The second section of my dissertation (Chapters IV, V, VI and VII) is an investigation of the potential role of small nuclear RNA sequence variants in the control of splicing. I identified 46 copies of small nuclear RNAs in the 6X whole genome shotgun of the Bombyx mori p50T strain. These variants may play a role in differential binding of specific proteins that mediate alternative splicing. Along these lines, further investigation of U2 snRNA sequence variants in Bombyx mori demonstrated that some U2 snRNAs preferentially assemble into high molecular weight spliceosomal complexes over others. Expression of snRNA variants may represent another mechanism by which the cell is able to fine tune the splicing process.

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