SRSF2 promotes splicing and transcription of exon 11 included isoform in Ron proto-oncogene

The product of proto-oncogene Ron is a human receptor for the macrophage-stimulating protein (MSP). Upon activation, Ron is able to induce cell dissociation, migration and matrix invasion. Exon 11 skipping of Ron pre-mRNA produces Ron△165 protein that is constitutively active even in the absence of its ligand. Here we show that knockdown of SRSF2 promotes the decrease of exon 11 inclusion, whereas overexpression of SRSF2 promotes exon 11 inclusion. We demonstrate that SRSF2 promotes exon 11 inclusion through splicing and transcription procedure. We also present evidence that reduced expression of SRSF2 induces a decrease in the splicing of both introns 10 and 11; by contrast, overexpression of SRSF2 induces an increase in the splicing of introns 10 and 11. Through mutation analysis, we show that SRSF2 functionally targets and physically interacts with CGAG sequence on exon 11. In addition, we reveal that the weak strength of splice sites of exon 11 is not required for the function of SRSF2 on the splicing of Ron exon 11. Our results indicate that SRSF2 promotes exon 11 inclusion of Ron proto-oncogene through targeting exon 11. Our study provides a novel mechanism by which Ron is expressed.