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TDP-43 nuclear loss in FTD/ALS causes widespread alternative polyadenylation changes

Yi Zeng, Anastasiia Lovchykova, Tetsuya Akiyama, Chang Liu, Caiwei Guo, Vidhya Maheswari Jawahar, Odilia Sianto, Anna Calliari, Mercedes Prudencio, Dennis W. Dickson, Leonard Petrucelli, Aaron D. Gitler

Abstract

In frontotemporal dementia and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the RNA-binding protein TDP-43 is depleted from the nucleus. TDP-43 loss leads to cryptic exon inclusion but a role in other RNA processing events remains unresolved. Here, we show that loss of TDP-43 causes widespread changes in alternative polyadenylation, impacting expression of disease-relevant genes (e.g., ELP1, NEFL, and TMEM106B) and providing evidence that alternative polyadenylation is a new facet of TDP-43 pathology.